Much Respect: Rockstar Games Asks Take-Two To Step Off GTA V PC Modders And OpenIV
It is better to have some mods instead of none, right? In a welcome move, Rockstar Games and Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive have agreed to not take legal action against single-player mod projects.
Rockstar released a statement noting, “Take-Two has agreed that it generally will not take legal action against third-party projects involving Rockstar’s PC games that are single-player, non-commercial, and respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of third parties.”
It is important to note that Take-Two and Rockstar could potentially take legal action against mods relating to multiplayer or online services, tools, files, libraries, or functions that could affect multiplayer or online services, or the importation of unrelated IP. Rockstar also made it very clear that their statement was not a license and did not constitute approval of third-party projects. Take-Two still could revoke the rights of third-party projects as well. For now, they're just toning down the aggressive stance.
This complicated concession from Rockstar and Take-Two comes on the heels of the recent OpenIV controversy. Take-Two sent a cease-and-desist letter to Yuriy "Good-NDS" Krivoruchko, the developer of OpenIV, last week. The publisher wanted to target “malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody”.
Many GTA V fans believed that that cease-and-desist letter was an attack on modding as a whole, despite the fact that Take-Two and Rockstar stated that they were not specifically targeting single-player mods. Never-the-less, Fans left bad reviews for GTA V on Steam in protest. They also started a petition for OpenIV that gained over 77,000 signatures.
OpenIV may still experience some trouble in the future, however, because it allows users to decrypt and edit proprietary file formats. Many people have used OpenIV’s capabilities to cheat in GTA Online. Krivoruchko insisted that he was uninterested in GTA Online, but did admit that it was possible that some modders may have used OpenIV for some unscrupulous projects. Although OpenIV did release an update, it is unclear how long they can exist before indirectly violating Rockstar and Take-Two’s new policy.
Regardless, thanks to the outcry from fans, Rockstar and Take-Two will leave single-player modders alone for now. Modders will be able to mod as long as they don’t impact company profits or the multi-player, on-line user experience.
Rockstar released a statement noting, “Take-Two has agreed that it generally will not take legal action against third-party projects involving Rockstar’s PC games that are single-player, non-commercial, and respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of third parties.”
It is important to note that Take-Two and Rockstar could potentially take legal action against mods relating to multiplayer or online services, tools, files, libraries, or functions that could affect multiplayer or online services, or the importation of unrelated IP. Rockstar also made it very clear that their statement was not a license and did not constitute approval of third-party projects. Take-Two still could revoke the rights of third-party projects as well. For now, they're just toning down the aggressive stance.
This complicated concession from Rockstar and Take-Two comes on the heels of the recent OpenIV controversy. Take-Two sent a cease-and-desist letter to Yuriy "Good-NDS" Krivoruchko, the developer of OpenIV, last week. The publisher wanted to target “malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody”.
Many GTA V fans believed that that cease-and-desist letter was an attack on modding as a whole, despite the fact that Take-Two and Rockstar stated that they were not specifically targeting single-player mods. Never-the-less, Fans left bad reviews for GTA V on Steam in protest. They also started a petition for OpenIV that gained over 77,000 signatures.
OpenIV may still experience some trouble in the future, however, because it allows users to decrypt and edit proprietary file formats. Many people have used OpenIV’s capabilities to cheat in GTA Online. Krivoruchko insisted that he was uninterested in GTA Online, but did admit that it was possible that some modders may have used OpenIV for some unscrupulous projects. Although OpenIV did release an update, it is unclear how long they can exist before indirectly violating Rockstar and Take-Two’s new policy.
Regardless, thanks to the outcry from fans, Rockstar and Take-Two will leave single-player modders alone for now. Modders will be able to mod as long as they don’t impact company profits or the multi-player, on-line user experience.
