battle royale game mode, Warzone.According to The Hollywood Reporter, Activision is filing a Digital Millennium Copyright Act subpoena against Reddit in an effort to reveal the identity of the user who leaked “infringing Activision content.”
The now-deleted Reddit post seemingly revealed some key art from the upcoming Modern Warfare: Warzone game mode. This is not the first Warzone leak, as there have been a handful of leaks over the past couple of months, which have all but confirmed the unannounced battle royale game mode.
A December leak seemingly revealed an official look at the new Warzone map, while a leak earlier this month seems to reveal the full battle royale map. Since Modern Warfare leaks are not uncommon, it’s unclear why Activision is just now deciding to take legal action.IGN has reached out to Activision for a comment, but did not immediately receive a reply. A DMCA subpoena allows a company to notify another company that copyright-protected materials have been posted in some form on their own service, ostensibly compelling that company to respond and take down the infringing material. The DMCA protects companies like Reddit, YouTube, or other internet-based companies from legal damages if a user posts another company’s content on their site, so long as they agree to comply to the subpoena.
Activision is not the only company that has taken legal action against a leaker in the past few months. In November, Epic sued a UX tester for leaking details about Fortnite Chapter 2, and one month later sued another leaker for the same thing.
At the time of writing, it is unclear if Activision will be successful in subpoenaing Reddit to court, and if Reddit will comply with releasing the user’s identity. We will update this story in the coming days as more news unfolds.
Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.