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Be careful of what you mod. In the case of Take Two Interactive's anarchy simulator, GTA V, you can have whales falling from the sky, Iron Man flying through it, or the Hulk hurling stuff into it, but don't create a way to enter an alternate, moddable version of GTA online. As one modder found out, if you do that, you might just have private investigators show up at your house to encourage you to stop what you're doing.
“I just got a pair of PIs at my door claiming to be sent by Take-Two, handing me a phone with a person somewhere in the UK or US or whatever to ‘discuss how to cease my activities with regard to Grand Theft Auto', the modder of FiveM said on Reddit (via EG). He went on to explain how the PIs stated that Take Two didn't want to get the lawyers involved, but was confident in its legal position if tested.
The Take Two representative also stated that the company couldn't disclose any ongoing discussions it was having with other modders, though we do know that it has also gone after the creators of GTA: Multiplayer, which offered a similar service. It too has been shut down, though there has been no involvement of private investigators as far as we've heard.
Fortunately Take Two had a disgruntled ex-cop on payroll just perfect for the job
In the case of GTA:M, Rockstar was said to actually be quite interested in the mod, and had even helped the developers out in some respects. However Take Two being the publisher carries a little more weight in this instance, so it has shut that one down too.
Despite Take Two's insistence however that the mods in this case were ‘enabling piracy' both of them had strict policies of only making the multiplayer servers available to those with valid licenses who had purchased the game, thereby not removing any potential sales from Take Two's pockets. However, it has been suggested that the reason the publisher was so aggravated by them, was because it would be unable to sell in-game money and any aesthetic extras to players in these alternate online universes.
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KitGuru Says: This seems like a way overly aggressive tactic to stop what would likely be a minority of players from gaming outside of the usual rules structure. Especially since they had to own the game and presumably have played a lot of it already.
What did the mod do? Like you talked about the investigator and the guy, but what was the mod unlocking?
It Take Two was actually that confident their legal position they would have simply sent a cease and desist order rather than hiring some thugs to show up at someone’s doorstep.
I’m assuming the mod doesn’t unlock anything, per se, just sounds like a “private” multiplayer server, where the rules of play would be different. I guess it would be like normal GTA Online, except more fun rules – like the fun private servers from WoW, where you could level up faster or get money easier. Don’t see why they want to stop it though, they wouldn’t be able to transfer their progress from one server to another since that would be straight up cheating.
But hey, that’s all just my assumptions. I’ve tried googling the mod, but it’s hard to find.
GTA Online isn’t moddable (probably to prevent cheating among other things), hence the need for an alternative modded versions for people who wanted to play with mods.
Those mods ask you to authenticate with your GTA account (ensuring you have the game).
AND WHERE YOU COULD KICK FKING HACKERS! Cause THAT’s what makes the game unplayable!!
After breaking record sales and making a ton of cash, they don’t want the player base to unlock the full potential of the game by modding it because “People won’t give us more money for content”. This is a horrible move by Take Two, considering people bought the god damn game 3 times already!
I understand their viewpoint, I was going to be hard-headed and say something stupid, but if this was created you could download GTA V and play online without paying for the game in an alternate online mode. I did this same thing with GTA San Andreas, there was nothing motivating me to buy it, until recently. I had it for years free, and then recently bought it because it was on sale and I don’t pirate anymore. His FiveM would reduce GTA V sales, without a doubt. It would be amazing having an alternate version though, on those they have mods built into the server, and they do so much with very little. Rockstar should learn a bit, on GTA SAMP it was far better than Story Mode, there was actually more to explore than story mode, which is insane. I played a server where you could fish, be a weapon’s dealer, Rob homes etc.
Yes, it’s like SAMP for San Andreas, an alternate multiplayer server. This has been created for GTA IV as alternate, but for San Andreas and Vice City there was no multiplayer. This would allow people to play online without paying for the game, and they could win the case pretty easily. People are motivated to buy the game because you can only get online paying for it. I mean, that’s what I cared about, and also the ease of updating.
yeah, i’d call the cops if this happened. if this story is in any way true all i see is take two using intimidation tactics to try to stop modding.
“Despite Take Two’s insistence however that the mods in this case were
‘enabling piracy’ both of them had strict policies of only making the
multiplayer servers available to those with valid licenses who had
purchased the game, thereby not removing any potential sales from Take
Two’s pockets.
Except, the server/mod that’s being talked about in this story, you can’t use without PURCHASING from TAKE TWO a legal copy of the game. The piracy argument is invalid.
Take-two said it enables piracy, the person who created said he has strict policies in-place. He may be lying, and if he isn’t Take-two would need to investigate because every GTA online mod before has enabled piracy.
How do you know that? Take-two doesn’t even know that. Read my other comment. And what the article says.
I did read what the article says. That’s why I quoted it directly in my other comment. I will expand further in my reply there.
And look at this video and how “good the policy is” playing FiveM with a cracked game GG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwesWXPqcIw want more? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd8m5NOSPp8
So we have two stories here – one lives up to scrutiny and one doesn’t.
We have Take Two, insisting that the mod enables piracy.
We have FiveM, insisting that it doesn’t, because you can’t use it without a legally purchased copy of the game.
Take Two is a large company and undoubtedly has plenty of lawyers on staff and more on retainer. In addition, Take Two is the publisher of the game, and should have absolutely zero problem with using legal copies of their game, as well as hacked copies out on the internet, in order to test whether or not FiveM’s mod enables piracy. If they had done that, and if they had valid legal grounds to suspect that FiveM’s mod enables piracy, they’d go through proper legal channels, send a cease-and-desist order, and possibly take them to court if they refused to comply.
Instead, they send a couple hired private investigators to go harass the guy at his home. “Nice place you got here… it’d be a shame if something happened to it….”
This isn’t the action of a large studio with legal grounds to stop something for fear of software piracy. This is the action of a large studio trying to protect its profit margins in microtransactions when they can’t do it through the courts.
The problem is, you are wrong. Look on Youtube. People use FiveM with cracked games.
I’m at work and can’t view youtube videos, so I’ll take your word for it. But in this case, why would they have to resort to shady tactics like sending hired guns? Send the cease-and-desist and be done with it.
Clearly, Take Two is not as confident in their legal position as you are.
In my opinion, what this is boiling down to is whether you’re willing to take what the company says at face value. I am never, ever, ever willing to take what any company says at face value.
Oh, well that is another topic. And I don’t think that was really necessary. Lol and this article is wrong about the license they meant. Look at this post from the creator of FiveM “licensees, as in anyone holding a valid CitizenFX license for reuse”, it sounds like he’s actually SELLING an online mode.
Take-two should serve some papers, not Private Investigators.
If Take Two was really that concerned, why don’t they offer this modder a job? If I ran a company and was concerned with someone potentially taking money out of my pocket, I might want them working for me. I certainly wouldn’t send thugs to their door to intimidate them.
Corporations profile like psychopaths and their only true concern is profit margins. There are so many laws on the books protecting copyrighted materials that Take Two would have no trouble shutting this mod down legally if there was anything to their claims. I agree with Speely that one should never, ever be willing to take what any company says at face value. Companies always have ulterior motives. When they send a couple of PIs to your door instead of a C&D order, they know they have no legal recourse and are trying to use strong-arm tactics instead. Shame on Take Two. In order for Take Two to lose any significant amount of money from microtransactions, millions of players would need to start playing the modded version. I just don’t see that many people willing to switch. Unless Take Two continues being a bunch of whiney douche bags. Then I could see millions of players switching just to give a big middle finger to Take Two.
All of this conjecture about take two’s legal position is pointless, the EULA states categorically that editing or modifying their files is not allowed. So i would say their legal position is quite strong.
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I hope this dont make rockstar not want to bring Gta vi to pc. This is probably one of the main reason we couldn’ t get v for so long. So many people breaking the rules and cheating online its crazy. Gta san andreas was so difficult to kill someone online because of mods.
What about modding some PIs onto GTA V now?
The publishers can Take Two up their ass.