Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of developer Rockstar Games, has filed a lawsuit against a group of modders responsible for reverse-engineering GTA 3 and GTA Vice City as part of a massive fan-led modding project.
Take-Two Interactive had already filed a take-down notice earlier in the year for both “re3” and “reVC” projects. The modders however returned a couple of months back in June to resume their work since reverse-engineering GTA 3 and GTA Vice City technically falls into a grey area, at least according to them.
Both re3 and reVC attempt to recreate GTA 3 and GTA Vice City by writing new code instead of using any leaked, original source code. The reverse-engineering process also does not use any original game assets such as soundtracks or images, but does introduce improvements missing from the original versions.
According to court documents obtained earlier today, Take-Two Interactive believes that the Grand Theft Auto reverse-engineering fan-project infringes upon its copyrights. The lawsuit further alleges that the the modding project is causing “irreparable harm” since the modders have “enabled countless others to now create their own unauthorized, derivative versions” of GTA 3 and GTA Vice City.
Take-Two Interactive is also not happy that re3 and reVC have received new features such as reduced loading times and visual improvements, including togglable “new cheats which are strictly prohibited under [its] terms of service.”
“Take-Two Interactive has never authorized or given consent to defendants to use their copyrighted works in the manner complained of herein,” notes the lawsuit.
Unfortunately we have some breaking news to cover on. Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive has filed a lawsuit against the folks behind the reverse engineering project for GTA3 and Vice City, also known as Re3.
Filing can be seen herehttps://t.co/MQaASogUGG
— GTA News 🔴 RockstarINTEL.com (@GTAonlineNews) September 3, 2021
Last month, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick pointed out a company policy to take down GTA mods which present a threat to earnings. He added that the company otherwise has a “pretty flexible policy” for supporting mods.
It is possible that the reason re3 and reVC need to be taken down permanently is because Rockstar Games has been remastering GTA 3 and GTA Vice City (as well as GTA San Andreas) just as recent rumors claimed.
