Illegitimate 'Lineage II' Server Closed By FBI
L2Extreme.com Under Government Control
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The FBI and NCSoft have teamed up to close down L2Extreme.com, which is now under the FBI's control. The site allowed users to access the popular Lineage II MMORPG without paying NCSoft a nickel, costing them "millions of dollars per year" according to the publisher. The site boasted some half-million registered users before the year long investigation culminated in seizures from Virgina to California.
"Operations like this essentially are defrauding customers by stealing from companies like NCsoft," said Matt Esber, NCsoft North America general counsel. "In the end those losses impact our customer support, product development, operational areas and ultimately they impact our player communities, most of which are trying to play games legitimately. This group in particular was downloading our version of the Lineage II software from our servers, costing us close to a million dollars in realized bandwidth costs during the period it was operational."
Although thousands of end-users were involved in the project in some form, NCSoft has stated that they do not intend to pursue them. "We just want people to know that when these things happen, we're very serious about it, and we're going to take whatever methods and means we need to take care of it," said David Swofford, PR director for North America.
Swofford also stated that the investigation is still ongoing and that more is to come.
"Operations like this essentially are defrauding customers by stealing from companies like NCsoft," said Matt Esber, NCsoft North America general counsel. "In the end those losses impact our customer support, product development, operational areas and ultimately they impact our player communities, most of which are trying to play games legitimately. This group in particular was downloading our version of the Lineage II software from our servers, costing us close to a million dollars in realized bandwidth costs during the period it was operational."
Although thousands of end-users were involved in the project in some form, NCSoft has stated that they do not intend to pursue them. "We just want people to know that when these things happen, we're very serious about it, and we're going to take whatever methods and means we need to take care of it," said David Swofford, PR director for North America.
Swofford also stated that the investigation is still ongoing and that more is to come.
