Back in June 2016, Twitch filed a legal complaint against seven makers of ‘view bots’, software used to inflate the apparent view count, follower count, and chat activity on a Twitch channel. Almost two years later, a California judge has ruled in favour of Twitch, awarding the company over $1.3 million.
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According to court documents(via Kotaku), the judge has ordered bot-makers Michael Anjomi and Katherine Anjomi to shut down their software, transfer their domain names to Twitch and both have been given bans from providing services which interact with the streaming goliath.
On top of that, the Anjomis have to pay Twitch a whopping $1,371,139, which includes $55,000 for damages and their profits of $1,316,139. The streaming platform won on the grounds of trademark infringement, anti-cybersquatting consumer protection, unfair competition and breach of contract.
According to BBC News, the Anjomis charged up to $760 a month to inflate a Twitch channel audience using sites domains such as shoptwitch.com and twitchshop.com, making it easier for streamers to make money and allowed them to become a Twitch Partner.
The Anjomis are not the first bot-makers to feel the repercussions of Twitch’s legal wrath. Last year a judge issued a permanent stipulated injunction against bot-maker Justin Johnston, one of the defendants alongside the Anjomis, ordering him to disable his services, hand back any Twitch-related domain names and social media handles to the company and preventing him from creating new similar domains.