GTA modders hit back against Take-Two copyright lawsuit, claim work falls under Fair Use...

midian182

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A hot potato: Given the debacle that is Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, Rockstar parent Take-Two Interactive is far from gamers' favorite company right now. It's also come under criticism for a copyright infringement lawsuit it launched against four GTA modders earlier this year. However, the four are fighting back by claiming the changes they made to the games were protected by Fair Use under the Copyright Act.

Earlier this year, the modders released 're3' and 'reVC,' enhanced versions of Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, respectively, which had been created by reverse-engineering the source code.

Take-Two responded a week later with a DMCA takedown filed at Github. The repositories were removed, but the modders filed a counternotice, and the files were restored. In September, Take-Two launched a lawsuit against the group, claiming they caused "irreparable harm" to its distribution of the GTA games and that it was owed more than $300,000 in damages.

TorrentFreak reports that the modders have issued a legal response to Take-Two's suit, arguing that their work fell under 'Fair Use,' which can allow the use of copyrighted material. The defense says that if any copyright infringements did occur, they were only to allow for interoperability of software and bug fixing. Therefore, such actions represent transformative use of content, meaning it builds upon the original material rather than copying it.

The modders note that the original games launched over 15 years ago, and Rockstar stopped releasing patches and bug-fixes years before work began on re3 and reVC. It's also noted that anyone wanting to use the mods required copies of GTA III and Vice City, both of which were pulled from sale in preparation for GTA: The Trilogy.

The defendants point out that Rockstar and Take-Two have "allowed others to undertake the development of 'mods' of its software," and "encouraged and supported others undertaking the development of 'mods'," and even showcased them, "without any adverse action" in the past. The modders also said that their work could have encouraged sales of the original games.

It had always been speculated that Take-Two was going after mods of early GTA games because it planned to release its own official, enhanced versions. The predictions turned out to be true when the GTA trilogy was announced. Sadly for gamers, the launch was one of the worst in history, Rockstar has been inundated with refund demands, and Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition currently has a user Metascore of 0.5.

If you own Rockstar's remastered GTA trilogy and would like to see improved performance, it's recommended that users enable DirectX12, lock the display to 60HZ, and turn on VSync.

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If it weren't for the modders most games would simply get dropped after a few months or even a years play. Just look at Fallout 4 and the extended life it has, still going strong today especially after the addition of Sim Settlements and Sim Settlements 2.
 
If it weren't for the modders most games would simply get dropped after a few months or even a years play. Just look at Fallout 4 and the extended life it has, still going strong today especially after the addition of Sim Settlements and Sim Settlements 2.
for pc they get a longer life, console gets goin to the next title.

thats the one thing that irks me about the pedestal modders place themselves on, it only affects the pc community, a janky game can be released and theres noise about it until the modders pipe up they fixed it...for pc, which is a double edged sword because sites cover that like "yay, problem solved". then those companies start work on another janky game while the console version is left to be terrible for a lot longer or until a remaster is done.

so for this one time they need to stay in the back and let rockstar and all of its money fix the issues on these new/old titles.

we get it pc modders, you do alot, but this one time let the the actual creators take these blows so they dont get away scott-free again with no lesson.
 
I don't understand how anyone in can lawfully defend Rockstar or Take Two. Take two people to caught at a time to get some mo cash money.

The modders fix everything Rockstar can't be bothered to do. I think Rockstar programmers feel butt hurt. Modders set the bar high, and polish the turds that rockstar release.

Maybe if rockstar polished their releases modders wouldn't rip their games to shred

 
Rockstar and Take Two just became lazy and greedy.
Just remember how many years it took for the loading time problem to be fixed, and the fix was made by some hero that didn't even work for them.

From what I have read (very little I admit), some key members of rockstar have been leaving the company in recent years, and in they're place went common CEO's or equivalent to that, that only think about money and profit. They don't care if the company's reputation gets dragged in the mud, they are only thinking about immediate profit and when its no longer profitable, they just move on to the next. It would be awesome if ppl simply did not buy GTA Trilogy and stopped buying shark cards. I really really wanted a remake of those games, but with what came out, they wont get my money. I hope they fail, I really do.
 
Rockstar has gone from my favorite to my most despised company. RDR2 was the biggest gaming purchase disappointment of my life and this re-issued trash they tried to sell us just insures they will never get another dollar from me, ever. Goodbye Rockstar.
 
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