Mods have become an important part of gaming in recent times, if not the most ethical part. Grand Theft Auto is one such gaming franchise that has seen a bucket load of mods since its inception. These mods range from GTA V mods like Festive Surprise and Redux to area-specific mods like GTA Punjab. You must be aware that Take-Two has been taking down any and all mods of the game they can find, for a few months.
Mod Empire Strikes Back
GTA developer Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two Interactive is on a killing spree for any and every GTA mod out there. In the past few months, it has taken downloads of mods for the GTA Franchise and has sued a bunch of developers as well. It has sent multiple takedown notices to get old 3D-era GTA mods and source ports removed from the internet.
One of the biggest victims of their takedown was GTA: Underground, which was sadly canceled even before it could release. The reason for this hostility against the mod dev community is unknown but might be related to the launch of GTA remasters which was released earlier this month. Anyways, the mod community has now decided to fight back as they filed counterclaims against Take-Two’s lawsuit.
These claims come from the team behind the re3 and reVC Grand Theft Auto fan projects. They are enhanced versions of GTA 3 and GTA: Vice City that was created by successfully reverse-engineering its source codes. As you might have guessed they were targeted by Take-Two and were accused of piracy and copyright infringement.
The Counterclaims
You must be thinking that what claims did they make which would make sense in such a situation. Well, they surprisingly make some sense, and here are what they are:
- They stated that the projects require the original games to play and were created from scratch using modern coding languages.
- The modders claim that any copyrighted materials used in the projects were done to fix the bugs in the original titles.
- They also stated that their actions are protected under fair use and hence, shouldn’t be punishable by law.
- Also, Rockstar had previously allowed and encouraged mods of its games. This led them to believe that it granted them an “implied license” and now taking it down seems hypocritical.
- They also pointed out that the projects could’ve helped out the sales for the original games. How? Because they first need to be purchased online to be played with their enhancements.
It remains to be seen where this battle of morals, ethics, as well as law, leads the GTA developers and the GTA modders. With GTA 6 likely to be coming soon, they will not want to attract too much negative attention.
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