The developer behind the popular software protection software VMProtect may be sueing Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH, the Austrian company behind the anti-piracy software Denuvo.

According to a recent post on the Russian forum rsdn, the anti-piracy software used in many of the latest PC games is internally using VMProtect for which the Austrian company has not acquired the appropriate licenses.

VMProtect has been on the market as generic software protection software since 2003 and aims to prevent users from analysing or reverse engineering the software it protects.

That Denuvo uses VMProtect is no secret, because the signature of VMProtect has showed up in many, if not all, Denuvo protected games since its introduction in late 2014.

With the release of the most recent version of Denuvo, widely known as Denuvo v4, the Austrian company has reportedly moved away from VMProtect, though the company did not officially respond to requests for comments.

A VMProtect representative now states that the company is working on filing a lawsuit against the Austrian company because it failed to acquire the appropriate licenses for its use of the software.

“

Everything went well until we corrected the claim that due to the unlicensed use of VMprotect, their license was canceled and options were offered for solving the problem through signing an amicable agreement, with compensation to us forfeit in a modest amount by their measure. Our proposal was ignored.

- drVano at VMProtect

If the lawsuit is indeed filed and Denuvo is deemed to be violating copyright and licensing agreements, it could mean that games using the anti-piracy software may no longer be distributed at all.

VMProtect further states that it is currently working with Valve, the company behind the Steam Store, and several anti-virus software distributers to stop further distribution of Denuvo. Whether this campaign will be successful remains to be seen.

The usage of VMProtect in Denuvo is one of the key ingredients that created for a rather robust anti-piracy mechanism that very few game crackers have been able to beat.

The latest version of Denuvo, which is reportedly no longer using VMProtect, was used in the recently released indie title RiME. The indie game was cracked in just five days after its release on May 26th 2017.

Both companies did not respond to requests for comments.