Developer accuses programmers of multiple acts of copyright infringement causing “immediate, massive and irreparable" harm.

StarCraft II developer Blizzard filed a lawsuit last week in the Los Angeles US District Court against three individuals accused of engineering and selling hacks for the real-time strategy game. The hacks are believed to affect the online multiplayer portion of the title.

In the court documents, viewed by Gamespot, Blizzard says that the defendants’ software leads others to violate the end user license agreement and terms of use of the game: "When users of the Hacks download, install, and use the Hacks, they copy StarCraft II copyrighted content into their computer's RAM in excess of the scope of their limited license, as set forth in the EULA and ToU, and create derivative works of StarCraft II."

Blizzard is seeking damages and reimbursement for any profits made by the hacks. If Blizzard win the case, the defendants will also be required to pull the programs from any sites hosted in the court’s jurisdiction.

Blizzard also states: "By distributing the Hacks to the public, Defendants cause serious harm to the value of StarCraft II. Among other things, Defendants irreparably harm the ability of Blizzard's legitimate customers (i.e. those who purchase and use unmodified games) to enjoy and participate in the competitive online experience. That, in turn, causes users to grow dissatisfied with the game, lose interest in the game, and communicate that dissatisfaction, thereby resulting in lost sales of the game or 'add-on' packs and expansions thereto."

A previous court case in which a firm was sued for creating and selling the “Glider” software for World Of Warcraft, was settled in Blizzard’s favour in 2008. The court found that Glider, which introduced a simple AI “bot” to WOW, infringed Blizzard’s copyright under similar terms to the case Blizzard is using now. It was awarded $6 million in damages.

In the new lawsuit two of the defendants, named by the handles Permaphrost and Cranix, reside in Canada with the third, Linuxawesome, living in Peru.