Leaker no-shows at court, gets hit with just 1/10th the damages the game publisher asked for

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Screenshot of the pre-release Honkai: Star Rail livestream that Cognosphere sued over. Image via the lawsuit.

A person who livestreamed unreleased content for Honkai: Star Rail, a top game from Genshin Impact maker Cognosphere, is on the hook to pay the publisher $16,500 in damages and attorney fees, following a court order issued on December 29.

It could have been way worse for them.

Cognosphere had wanted the leaker, identified as Alfredo Lopez, to pay $156,600 for actions it deemed to be copyright infringement of the game.

Game File first covered the case last June, when Cognosphere (also known as HoYoverse) sued Lopez in California’s Central District. Their grievance: Lopez streaming a pre-release livestreamed glimpse of then-upcoming Honkai: Star Rail character Castorice in a Discord channel that had 12,000 members.

The game company sought $150,000 for that act, the maximum allowable for willful copyright infringement. It sought that maximum as well as $6,600 in attorney fees.

Lopez never responded to the lawsuit, prompting Cognosphere to seek and receive a default judgment in his absence.

But the game publisher did spot what appeared to be Lopez talking about the lawsuit on Discord in mid-June, after it was filed. Those comments became part of the lawsuit: