Denuvo asks a US court to unmask cracker voices38 through Discord, Steam and Reddit

On 2 October 2026 Denuvo GmbH asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California for permission to serve subpoenas before the normal discovery phase, “solely to determine Defendant’s true identity”. The defendant is “voices38” — an anonymous game cracker Denuvo sued on 14 September without knowing who, or how many people, it is suing.

The case so far

Denuvo, whose corporate parent is Irdeto B.V. according to its filing on the docket, sells Anti-Tamper protection to game publishers. Its complaint accuses voices38 of bypassing that protection in 26 games, from FIFA 20 to Hogwarts Legacy and Black Myth: Wukong, and of posting materials and instructions that let others do the same — including a Reddit page listing the cracked titles. The claims are under the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions, §1201(a)(1) and §1201(a)(2), not ordinary copyright infringement; none of the game publishers is a party.

The case is before Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr.

What Denuvo knows, and what it wants

The motion sets out what Denuvo had before it went to court: voices38’s username and user ID on Discord, a set of accounts on Valve’s Steam, the Reddit alias, and “certain transactions by Defendant, including transactions for cryptocurrencies”. After filing suit it asked Discord, Valve and Reddit for identifying information directly. According to the motion, each replied that its privacy policy did not allow disclosure without compulsory legal process, such as a subpoena.

The proposed subpoenas, as reported by TorrentFreak, are broad within that narrow purpose. From Valve: registration data, names and billing addresses for seven Steam accounts, payment methods and transaction histories, timestamped IP addresses, device identifiers and linked accounts. From Discord: account data and the servers and roles the account holds. From Reddit: account data, every post and comment by voices38, and subreddit memberships. A supporting declaration from Denuvo’s counsel says the company traced Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana transactions by the defendant on the instant exchange FixedFloat — though Denuvo does not seek a subpoena to FixedFloat, and the filing does not say why.

The legal test the motion relies on is the Ninth Circuit’s: where a defendant’s identity is unknown, a plaintiff should be given the chance to identify them through discovery “unless it is clear that discovery would not uncover the identities”. Denuvo’s argument is that specific account identifiers on platforms that require registration make that outcome likely.

Why a lawsuit, and not a DMCA subpoena

Six weeks ago we covered Take-Two unmasking the GTA 6 leaker with four §512(h) subpoenas — a clerk-issued DMCA procedure that needs no lawsuit at all. Denuvo did not take that route, and the reason is instructive. Section 512(h) is tied to notices of claimed copyright infringement against material on a service provider. Denuvo’s grievance is circumvention of a technological measure, a separate wrong under §1201. Its path to the same platform records therefore runs through a Doe lawsuit and a Rule 26(d) motion for early discovery: slower, more expensive, and subject to a judge’s discretion, but available for claims §512(h) does not cover.

What this means for you

For brand owners dealing with anonymous infringers — crackers, leakers, impersonators, operators of clone sites — the filing is a clean template of how unmasking is actually done in the US:

• Collect identifiers before you need them. Platform user IDs (not just display names), linked accounts, payment and crypto traces. The motion works because it names specific accounts on specific platforms.
• Ask first, and keep the refusal. Denuvo can tell the court that each platform declined without legal process. That is part of showing that discovery is necessary.
• Match the procedure to the claim. §512(h) for infringing content, a Doe suit with early discovery for circumvention, trademark, impersonation and most other claims. Picking the wrong door costs months.

The pressure is already showing. TorrentFreak reports no new voices38 releases since the lawsuit, despite an “everything will continue as normal” reply on Reddit, and that a separate hypervisor-bypass group, DenuvOwO, disbanded in September with the lawsuit reportedly cited as a concern.