Denuvo Sues Unidentified Cracker “voices38” Over Alleged DRM Circumvention in 26 Games

Denuvo GmbH has sued a defendant it identifies only by an online alias over the alleged circumvention of its Anti-Tamper protection in 26 PC games.

The complaint was filed on September 14, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California as Denuvo GmbH v. Voices38, case No. 5:26-cv-10423-NC. It names as defendant “VOICES38, an unknown individual or entity,” alongside Does 1–10 — a party whose identity was unknown to Denuvo when it filed. Denuvo, an Austrian company headquartered in Salzburg, is a subsidiary of Irdeto B.V., according to the certificate of interested entities filed with the complaint.

The two counts

The 16-page complaint brings two claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Count One under 17 U.S.C. §1201(a)(1), for circumventing a technological measure that controls access to a copyrighted work, and Count Two under §1201(a)(2), for trafficking in the means to do so. Remedies are sought under §1203.

The complaint is captioned as one for copyright infringement, and the court has docketed it under Nature of Suit 820. Denuvo does not, however, plead ownership of any copyright in the games — unlike a rights holder policing its own work, as the Tetris Company did when it objected to a White House-published game earlier this year. It instead pleads registrations it attributes to the publishers and their parent companies, among them Electronic Arts, ZeniMax Media, 2K Games and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

The 26 games

The titles named are Need for Speed Heat, EA Sports FIFA 20, Star Wars: Squadrons, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, EA Sports FIFA 21, Hi-Fi Rush, F1 2021, “Dead Space Remastered” (the complaint’s wording), Doom: The Dark Ages, Mafia: The Old Country, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, Hogwarts Legacy, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Shining Resonance Refrain, PES 2020, Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Anno 1800, Sonic Frontiers, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Pragmata, Resident Evil Requiem, Black Myth Wukong, Stellar Blade and 007 First Light.

What Denuvo is asking for

The complaint does not specify a damages figure. It requests actual damages and the defendant’s profits under §1203(c)(2), or alternatively statutory damages under §1203(c)(3), plus attorney’s fees and costs.

The injunctive relief sought is broad. Denuvo asks the court to restrain the defendant from circumventing its Anti-Tamper in “any past, present, or future video game,” and from trafficking in tools designed to do so — the same category of enforcement Activision has pursued against cheat sellers, whose anti-cheat team says it has disrupted more than 375 reseller operations. It further seeks an accounting of profits, a constructive trust over them, an order barring the defendant from transferring or concealing those profits, and a written report under oath on compliance within 30 days after service of an injunction.

Identifying the defendant

The complaint identifies online accounts Denuvo associates with the alias: a Reddit account, a Discord username and user ID, and seven Steam profiles. The complaint itself contains no request for a discovery order, and no motion seeking to identify the defendant appears on the docket as mirrored by RECAP, which lists eight entries dated September 14 to 16 and was last refreshed on September 18. RECAP mirrors PACER and may lag it.

The clerk issued a summons on September 16. The summons identifies voices38 as an unknown individual or entity and lists their address as unknown. It requires an answer to the complaint, or a motion under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, within 21 days after service.

Where the case stands

The case is assigned to Magistrate Judge Nathanael M. Cousins. The court’s September 16 scheduling order requires the plaintiff to file its consent or declination to magistrate jurisdiction within 14 days of case initiation, sets the ADR certification and Rule 26(f) conference deadlines for November 25, and requires initial disclosures and a joint case management statement by December 9. The same order scheduled an initial case management conference for December 16, 2026 at 10:00 AM, to be held by Zoom. Denuvo has demanded a jury trial.

The complaint contains allegations, not findings of liability. After the lawsuit was reported, a comment posted on the CrackWatch subreddit and attributed to voices38 read: “All is fine. Everything will continue as normal.”

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Based on the complaint (Dkt. 1), scheduling order (Dkt. 5) and summons (Dkt. 7) in Denuvo GmbH v. Voices38, No. 5:26-cv-10423-NC (N.D. Cal.). Docket reviewed September 21, 2026 via CourtListener’s RECAP archive, last refreshed September 18, 2026.