Lawmakers seeking ban on online game private servers, cheating programs

People’s Party Rep. Lee Dong-sup, center, proposes a revision on the Promotion Act on the Games Industry that stipulates rules of punishment on the use of cheating programs and the operation of illegal private servers for online games, at the National Assembly, Friday. / Courtesy of Rep. Lee Dong-sup’s office

By Yoon Sung-won

Opposition lawmakers are pushing to crack down on the use of cheating programs in online games and the operation of illegal private servers.

Lawmakers led by Rep. Lee Dong-sup of the People’s Party proposed a revision on the Promotion Act on the Games Industry that stipulates rules of punishment on such illegalities, Friday.

“Both Overwatch and League of Legends, which hold the first and the second highest market shares in PC rooms here, are suffering from illegal cheating programs,” Lee said. “For many other popular online computer games including Lineage, it is also true that there are multiple private servers which illegally provide highly-speculative content and sell rare in-game items.”

According to gaming industry insiders, users of Blizzard Entertainment’s first-person shooter Overwatch are complaining about the distribution of a cheating program called “aim hack,” which offers an automatic aiming function, while those of Riot Games’ strategy combat game League of Legends have reported those who illegally tap into cheating programs that provide the opponents’ locations and vital information. Such cheating programs have been known to be distributed under the table at item trading websites.

Though cheating programs and illegal private servers have been rampant in the domestic gaming industry, undermining the interest of both users and businesses, the act has not included regulations and strict penalties to get unfairness out of the market. The industry is expected to find a legal measure to tackle such illegalities should the revision pass the National Assembly.

“The problem here is that the gaming industry act does not have a measure to restrict such illegal private servers and cheating programs,” Lee said. “In some cases, the police and the Game Rating and Administration Committee have had to punish them through the copyright law when they uncover such illegalities because the gaming industry act does not stipulate punishment for such wrongdoings. The punishments were not effective because they were not strong enough to root the illegalities out of the market.”

Last month, the Game Rating and Administration Committee and the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency said they apprehended a suspect who operated an illegal private server for Lineage. But they had to seek to punish the suspect not for the operation of the private server but for illegal exchanges due to the lack of proper penalty clauses in the law.

According to the lawmaker, the revision prohibits production or distribution of computer software, devices or equipment aiming at illegal production and provision of game content that has not been provided and approved by lawful game businesses, or of discretionally modified contents.

The revision also stipulates that those who break this regulation will face up to five years in prison or a 50 million won fine.

“If the revision passes, those who produce cheating programs and operate illegal private servers, as well as distribute them online for profit, can be punished,” the lawmaker said. “I will seek to restore the order in the gaming market and protect e-sports here.”

Lee, who has been elected by proportional representation of the People’s Party, has also proposed a bill to protect copyrights of Korean game content which have faced damages by copycat content from China.