Recently there’s been a lot of online speculation about a new “Warzone” battle royale mode that’s rumored to be coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in March.
This speculation has been accompanied by several leaks purporting to show footage and promotional materials for this Warzone mode.
The game’s publisher, Activision, has been using copyright claims to get several of these leaks taken down and now court documents show that Activision is also trying to unmask a Reddit user behind one of these leaks.
The leak in question was posted by Reddit user Assyrian2410 with the text: “I found this image online. Not sure what it is. Possibly Battle Royale.”
The image has been removed from Reddit but is still featured in several gaming news outlets and appears to be a promotional poster for Call of Duty: Warzone.
Tweets sharing the image are being “withheld in response to a report from the copyright holder” which suggests that the image is genuine and being blocked by Activision.
On February 14, Activision requested a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) subpoena [1] [2] [3] against Reddit “to identify alleged infringers” and demanded that Reddit hand over stored data that is “sufficient to identify the individual(s) responsible for posting content under the username “Assyrian2410”” in the Reddit thread where the image was posted.
The subpoena commands Reddit to hand over Assyrian2410’s:
- Name (s)
- Address(es)
- Telephone number(s)
- Email address(es)
- IP address(es)
According to Torrent Freak, because “the infringing content was posted in the thread itself and the actual image URL isn’t mentioned at all in the subpoena request,” the subpoena is “seemingly deficient.”
The subpoena commands Reddit to hand over Assyrian2410’s personal details by February 29 but it’s unclear whether Reddit will comply or whether this data is still available since Assyrian2410’s Reddit account has since been deleted.
Torrent Freak adds that after initially claiming they found the image online, Assyrian2410 later confessed that it was sent to them by an “inside source” which raises questions about whether Activision is using the subpoena to investigate who this inside source is.
