Denuvo GmbH has filed a federal lawsuit against an anonymous individual known by the alias “voices38,” alleging the systematic circumvention of its Anti-Tamper software across 26 high-profile video games. The complaint, filed on September 14, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Case No: 5:26-cv-10423), marks a significant escalation in how the DRM provider handles software piracy.
Instead of relying solely on technical updates to patch vulnerabilities, Denuvo’s parent company, Irdeto B.V., is utilizing a legal strategy focused on unmasking the defendant. The company has requested subpoenas for several major platforms, including Discord, Reddit, and Valve’s Steam service, in an effort to link the “voices38” handle to a real-world identity through IP logs, registration data, and purchase histories.
The lawsuit is built on Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which prohibits the act of bypassing technological protection measures. Because Denuvo provides security services rather than owning the game copyrights themselves, the legal focus remains strictly on the act of circumvention rather than copyright infringement of the game assets.
According to the filing, “voices38” successfully bypassed protections for several major titles released over the last two years. The list of compromised games cited in the complaint includes:
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Doom: The Dark Ages
- Resident Evil Requiem
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage
The technical approach used by “voices38” reportedly differs from other modern cracking methods. While some groups have moved toward hypervisor-based bypasses that attempt to trick the DRM into thinking it is running on legitimate hardware, “voices38” has largely utilized more traditional patching methods. This approach has not been without criticism within the piracy community; users on various forums have reported significant memory leaks and performance instabilities in specific cracks, such as the version released for Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
As TorrentFreak reports, the success of this litigation likely hinges on the compliance of the third-party platforms. If Valve or Discord are compelled to provide account information, it could provide a roadmap for Denuvo to target other prolific crackers who have long operated under the assumption of anonymity.
The complaint names an anonymous individual known as “voices38” as the defendant. The company is seeking both permanent injunctive relief to stop the distribution of the cracks and unspecified statutory damages for the violations of the DMCA.
