benicillin
Banned
I am still so skeptical of any "news" sourced from Reddit of all places with little to no evidence.
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Take-Two sends private investigators to GTAV modder's home asking to shut down mod
- Thread starter ashecitism
- Start date
Winterblink
Member
Maybe it's part of some viral marketing campaign for their next game, a PI game set in the 80's?Did the PI look like this?
PHOENIXZERO
Member
If this is real that's nice... How about they put that effort into tracking down the fucks who put out the trainer/cheat software that plagues GTA Online. I thought last gen's problems with cheaters with modded consoles was bad but on PC holy shit. They've done infintely more damage to Rockstar/T2's bottom line than these people basically making "private servers".
Don't quote me as if I'm saying T2 is right because I didn't say that.
Also, saying they don't have any grounds for legal action because they're not taking legal action immediately is jumping to conclusions. Maybe they have no case, maybe they do.
This is probably against the terms of service, for one. I'm no expert, so I can't say what that would be worth in a court case. I suppose it doesn't really matter: both T2 and their opponents express confidence in the law being on their side. So everyone lawyer up and duke it out. Let a judge be the judge.
A shame that T2 has unlimited lawyer-money, though.
This is the original post. Notice how it's on the mod's subreddit, and notice how the OP is a moderator on that subreddit. What's clear is that this post came from the account of someone on the modding team. That indeed still doesn't rule out that the guy is lying or got his account hacked, but there you go. That's all we have.
Nevadatan
Member
ClosingADoor
Member
Strange stuff, if they know his address, you'd expect them to sent a letter. Not some detectives to hand him a phone like he's being targeted by the mafia or something. Don't know if I trust this story, sounds very far fetched.
benicillin
Banned
All I'm saying is that I remember these folks have run into problems with Take Two / Rockstar before and it's not unreasonable to consider the source. It's just kinda convenient for Take Two to send two unidentified PIs to hand someone a secret phone straight to Take Two HQ and threaten them to take down their mod because they're worried about their business.
Your sketicism is completely founded and OP is wrong to present the modder's claim as fact.
EDIT:
You know, you have a great point. After what happened (R* bans the FiveM modders' RGSC accounts) I can easily imagine the modders having a bone to pick with R*/T2. And if that's the case, then all is going according to plan. Look at all this negative press! It's like that gif from Community, where Troy comes back from getting pizza and his apartment is on fire and everyone is fighting eachother.
EDIT2: though GTA Multiplayer (different mod) shutting down at the same time is quite a coincidence. I wonder which came first.
FlammableAce
Member
Actually it's two mod teams that are saying it, both of them was developing an alternate GTA V multiplayer.
FiveM is one - https://www.reddit.com/r/FiveM/
GTA:MP is the other - https://forum.gta-mp.net/
One could argue you can just make GTA Online where people get lots of money and do whatever they want. This is already possible in the main game and with trainers, which have made the microtransaction thing useless.
At best you'd get GTA Online features for older GTA maps. Imagine all of GTAO's gameplay systems in GTA IV's map, for example. This would only incentivize the PC version more than it naturally is over the other versions of the game.
benicillin
Banned
So one team gets what is probably a standard C&D and the other team gets harassed by anonymous thugs? Sorry but something isn't adding up and I'm seeing more and more sites report on this as fact and it's kinda silly. Not saying that it didn't happen, but come on why are people reporting this.
EDIT: Did they ever take donations for their mods? If they did, getting a standard C&D and having to stop would certainly upset some donators but if they were harassed extra-legally then that takes some of the heat off of them for stopping and puts it on T2/Rockstar....
Not if they're trying to strong-arm modders to stop while not having a legal leg to stand on. You can't send a cease and desist if the modders aren't technically breaking the law. But you sure can hire someone to intimidate them while maintaining plausible deniability through a private intermediary.
Dick Justice
Banned
You could argue that. You could also look at the fact that these mods intended to provide things like dedicated servers for players, which would cut down on cheating, and allow for things like script and vehicle mods.
FlammableAce
Member
Actually the both got private investigators sent to their doors. I'm not sure why you refuse to believe it. If you actually visited the link I posted you see that they both say they got PI's at their doors.
These two mod's would of made GTA V great again, sad that it's not going to happen now
Damn! That last update on the GTA:MP website wasn't there before. So now we have two parties claiming visits by PIs. The plot thickens. T2 need to respond as soon as possible.
Erm no, as the copyright holder T2 can do whatever they want if they think someone is infringing on it and that means telling modders to shut down operations. There have been many examples of this happening like Warner Bros shutting down that LOTR mod for Skyrim. That sounds pure fantasy, plain and simple.
Warner Bros sent private investigators instead of cease and desist letters from lawyers? Making a LOTR mod in a different game is a completely different situation where actual copyrights were being violated. What copyrights are being violated here?
Why is Take Two using ZERO official legal channels here? Why are their lawyers not involved at all?
benicillin
Banned
I mean if they were actually visited by PI's that's kind scuzzy but Take2 is in it's right to defend their IP. Modding stuff is never guaranteed and it looks like both teams were taking donations for the mod, which means that they're profiting off of someone else's IP.
FlammableAce
Member
Where did you get the information that both teams was taking donations ? I think one of them was (GTA:MP) but I'm not sure about FiveM.
Rudimental
Member
Again, why are you taking this as gospel? It goes against industry standard practice of dealing with cases like this, as I said. They decide what is copyright infringement - doesn't matter if it has a different definition.
benicillin
Banned
They had paypal donation information on both their websites, it's not hard to find via google. GTA Online was Take-Twos biggest money earner last quarter, if people thought they weren't going to do anything about private servers coming up that could circumvent that revenue stream for them then they're living in a fantasy world.
Truth.
FlammableAce
Member
That settles it then, we just need GTA Online to die on PC so we can have our own servers when they no longer give a shit.
Nose Master
Member
The hell? Just send a C&D like a normal person, Rockstar. This is absurd to the point that it feels like a publicity stunt, but it'd be for his mod and not the game itself.
Kind of sounds like reddit fanfiction, tbh.
Kind of sounds like reddit fanfiction, tbh.
Who's "they"? And what are the standard practices here, to use private investigators to go to houses to hand them a telephone with a company rep on the other end? Is that really standard practice when combating modders? I thought standard practice was to use the law.
FlammableAce
Member
Again. There has been two mods shut down, not just one. Both of then got PI's sent to their houses.
Mod1. https://forum.gta-mp.net/
"There are a lot of dicussions and we have got a lot of requests. We confirm that private investigators also visited bit and xforce."
Mod2. https://www.reddit.com/r/FiveM/comments/3s5rmw/pis_sent_by_take_two_at_my_door_its_more_likely/
This is not fanfiction.
Thewonandonly
Junior Member
It makes sense they would do this because there propley shitting the bed on why they let gearbox make battlefront aka the only AAA game with zero hype. They need all the income they can possible get from gta5. Now mods stop making gta multiplayer clones and make a single player dlc since rockstar isn't going to.
Two parties with the same story does make it a lot more likely to be true.
Chû Totoro
Member
This is sad... so sad :/
PHOENIXZERO
Member
GTA Online has been a huge revenue stream for T2, so yeah it's serious business.
I'm not sure if you are being obtuse on purpose but it's getting irritating. They = other publishers. Standard practice = sending a C&D letter. It's not sending a bunch of goons to their door like something out of the Godfather, that is fiction - end of discussion.
benicillin
Banned
It's worth noting that GTA-MP didn't say that there were private investigators until after FiveM did. Again, I'm not saying it didn't happen, but it's also extremely unusual and assuming it did happen just because two groups of modders who had issues with Take-Two and Rockstar previously say it did is just as as bad as saying it absolutely didn't happen.
Wait, so you're saying these reports by two separate modders is false? This whole thread is talking about events that never transpired?
I agree with your assessment of what SHOULD be standard practice, but that is not what happened here, leading me to believe that they can't go through their standard practice because no laws were violated.
But it appears your stance is that this entire sequence of events did not take place and so I think that is where our disconnect happened. I thought you were arguing that it was perfectly normal for a company to send private investigators in lieu of cease and desist and that the company could do what it wants towards their IP.
Yes.
FlammableAce
Member
Actually they did, there is a discussion somewhere between the both developers before they closed the sit and such. I will try find the log because clearly you do not want to believe.
If that's the case then it seems like two separate modding teams conspired to spread misinformation and are now open to defamation suits.
BumblebeeCody
Member
benicillin
Banned
You don't need to convince me man, I'm just saying that I don't believe them just because they said it happened with no proof. It would be very unusual and this is the Internet.
FlammableAce
Member
It's also worth noting that Rockstar banned anyone who was affiliated with the FiveM multiplayer project.
Those who got banned (including just subreddit admins) can no longer play any rockstar game that requires social club. (Once you link your steam to social club there is no changing it) they are locked out of all the rockstar singleplayer games they own too.
EDIT: They also banned the word FiveM on social club crews along with any of the mod creators names.
Those who got banned (including just subreddit admins) can no longer play any rockstar game that requires social club. (Once you link your steam to social club there is no changing it) they are locked out of all the rockstar singleplayer games they own too.
EDIT: They also banned the word FiveM on social club crews along with any of the mod creators names.
It's certainly extremely unusual, which is why it's on the news sites right now. I'd be interested in these logs as well.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Valve allows that for Singleplayer games?
FlammableAce
Member
IRC Log
then not longer after they posted the message on their website.
then not longer after they posted the message on their website.