Skylanders hacker stopped by cease & desist

[dlevere]

By Steve Watts

A programmer who was tinkering with Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure was stopped in his tracks by a cease & desist letter from Activision. Brandon Wilson discovered the security protocol that the figurines use to interact with the computer, and posted a few vague details on his blog before receiving the legal notice.

Wilson's personal site (via The Escapist) mentions documenting the Skylanders protocol and encryption method, and that he planned to emulate the portal using graphing calculators. It wasn't long before followed up with another note: "And here come the Activision lawyers! Suffice it to say, I've been shut down, so uh... nevermind."

He notes in his response that he is not collaborating with other hackers or intending to distribute the file publicly. "This research project was for my own personal knowledge and to satisfy my own curiosity as to how the game interacts with its USB peripheral," he wrote. "I have expressed no desire to release to the public tools that circumvent Skylanders' access control measures, and I continue to express no desire toward that end. I do not and did not have any intention to harm Activision or cause harm to its products or investments.

"I re-iterate that I have and do intend to comply with your request to cease any and all research and development into how the game Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure works," he continues. "Any and all publicly accessible documentation and/or source code has been removed to the best of my knowledge and ability."

Wilson seems to have handled the situation reasonably, but as The Escapist notes, Activision's letter referenced leaks that weren't his. He only had a zip file from a data dump that he didn't release to the public. It's necessary for Activision to protect its legal interests, especially when it comes to a game like Skylanders that relies on purchasing extra figurines to support its business model. Sometimes that means bearing down on fairly harmless hobbyists.

[MathUser]

I'm kinda interested in how the skylanders accesory works. Too bad the guy got C & D'd.

[dlevere]

Skylanders Code Hacker Cease and Desist

http://wiird.l0nk.org/forum/index.php/topic,8988.0.html

Dear Mr. xxxxxx:

We are counsel for Activision Publishing, Inc. ("Activision"). Activision is the publisher of the
video game "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure" (the "Skylanders game"). As such, Activision is
the owner of U.S. and international copyrights and/or exclusive rights in and to the Skylanders
game and its related components (including the Skylanders "portal"), each of the "Skylanders"
character figurines, and the software code embodied within the Skylanders game, portal, and
figurines.

It recently has come to our client's attention that you (and others working in collaboration with
you) have obtained and published highly confidential Skylander character and other codes on
various websites, including the website http://wiird.10nk.org . Indeed, we have located a specific
message board thread on the wiird.lOnk.org website (entitled "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
[SSPE52]") in which you have disseminated dozens of Skylander codes and keys that you claim
can be used to modify and alter the Skylanders characters and the performance of the Skylanders
game.

We appreciate your interest in Skylanders. However, your activities are unlawful and have the
potential to cause enormous and irreparable harm to Activision. Most notably, your actions
violate federal anti-circumvention laws because we have reason to believe that, among other
things, you personally have engaged in unauthorized decryption and circumvention of
Skylanders code and encrypted data, and you have published and are continuing to publish data
that is intended to allow others to decrypt and circumvent access-control technologies embodied
within the Skylanders game. Additionally, your activities violate the End-User License
Agreement ("EULA") with Activision, which you knowingly consented to when you installed
the Skylanders game onto your console, and induce others to violate the EULA.

As noted, your activities, including your publication of Skylanders access codes, hacks, and
cheats, are causing (and unless remedied will continue to cause) harm to Activision and its
massive investment of time and expense in creating, marketing, and distributing its unique
Skylanders product.

In light of the foregoing, we must demand that you immediately remove all Skylanders hacks
and codes that you have posted to the Internet, whether on the wiird.l0nk.org website or on any
other website. We specifically demand that you remove the thread entitled "Skylanders: Spyro's
Adventure [SSPE52]" from the wiird.l0nk.org website and cease and desist from any further
posting of Skylanders codes or hacks. Please inform us in writing of your agreement to these
terms on or before the close of business on February 17, 2012.

Please note that our client takes this matter extremely seriously. Accordingly, Activision is
prepared to take whatever action it deems necessary to protect its rights.

Nothing contained in this letter is intended to, nor shall it constitute, a waiver or relinquishment
of any rights, claims, defenses, or causes of action possessed by Activision, all of which
expressly are reserved.

Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP

Thanks to GameMasterZer0 for the news submission.

[Parasyte]

Beautiful. A game is released with content embedded but "hidden" and only accessible by the purchase of additional hardware. When someone comes along with a way to access that content without the superfluous hardware, the C&Ds will fly.