A fan-project aiming to enhance the original Red Dead Redemption's visuals via emulation has been cancelled, after a lawsuit was filed by the copyright holders. Initially announced in August of this year, a video was posted to YouTube showing footage of Red Dead Redemption running on PC through Xbox 360 emulator Xenia, boasting improvements such as better textures, shaders, weather effects, and other graphical tweaks. Development on the project, which was titled "Red Dead Redemption: Damned Enhancement" lasted until September, where progress was halted, until resuming again sometime in November. On December 26th, Take-Two, who originally published and owned the IP rights to Red Dead Redemption, filed a legal complaint, intending to cancel the enhancement project.

Take-Two brings this action to maintain control over its world-famous video games in the face of Wyckoff’s publicly stated intent to distribute unauthorized software files that would dramatically change the content of Take-Two’s video games. Those unauthorized changes include but are not limited to importing the entire game map of 2010’s Red Dead Redemption into the 2018 game Red Dead Redemption II, enhancing graphics and visuals in Take-Two’s Red Dead Redemption game, and allowing players to play an enhanced version of the game on personal computer (“PCs”), a platform for which Take-Two itself has not yet released the Read Dead Redemption game.

The publisher claimed that this fan-project would interfere with a possible market for an official PC port of Red Dead Redemption 1 in the future, even though the company does not have any current intention to release such. They also claim that his modding infringes upon Take-Two's rights, stating that Wyckoff, the developer, was contacted numerous times by their legal team, and never responded to takedown requests, leading to the company taking legal recourse. Besides Wyckoff, ten other defendants were also involved in the lawsuit, though they remain unnamed as "John Doe(s)".

Wyckoff has knowingly, intentionally, and willfully infringed Take-Two’s rights and will continue to do so upon the release of the Infringing Programs unless enjoined and, upon information and belief, Wyckoff already has profited by violating Take-Two’s rights and User Agreement. As a result, Take-Two has been left with no choice but to file this lawsuit seeking injunctive relief and damages that it will suffer as a result of Wyckoff’s direct and contributory copyright infringement under the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., as well as for his breach of Take-Two’s User Agreement and his tortious interference with Take-Two’s contracts with other Take-Two game players using his modifications.

Currently, Wyckoff has cancelled the enhancement pack, and his other RDR mod, "RDRII Project", saying that he is in talks with Take-Two to settle the legal matter.

Source: Legal Document filed in the State of New York (via TorrentFreak)

Tags: [GAME=/game/red-dead-redemption.434]Red Dead Redemption[/GAME]

 

[isoboy]

Riiiightrightrightrightright......shocking.

 

[proffk]

This is bad news. Companies now targeting fan projects. Can't see whats wrong with improving a game through emulation. Don't most PC games have mods which improve gameplay.

 

[tech3475]

I wonder how much this is costing T2? Especially when you consider that you can’t buy the original game on PC and you would need to buy another game to play the mod.

 

[Lumince]

Well Take-Two wasnt going to do it? They are just pissed someone is making improvements on it and they arent able to make money off of it instead.

Fuck Take-Two

 

[8BitWonder]

If you're going to wait nearly 10 years on a PC port and still have no plans for it, then don't get pissy when people try to make it for you, Take-Two.

 

[FAST6191]

I am going to have to read a full notice here as I don't know what was claimed by the legal peeps/said to the courts (assuming some are involved), what was press release and what was something else.

If they are not distributing existing assets though* then feel free to ask for a name change if you think that might interfere, else fuck off with this shit and I consider it a direct attack on both the emulation and game modding worlds. There might be some technicality with either derived works or similar but that is pushing the limits of things.

*distributing the map is one thing, converting the map from existing assets the end user provides into a format that it can read is another.

 

[Jokey_Carrot]

HOW DARE THEY MODIFY A GAME THAT THEY BOUGHT AND OWN. It's fuckin stupid these game comapnies trying to stomp out modding it's not hurting anything. If we didn't have modding we wouldn't have basically every source game, alot of minecraft features and pubg. Same goes for people trying to modify their own hardware be that through custom firmware, hardware mods or even repair it's like companies think we don't own the hardware and software we well... own.

 

[gnmmarechal]

Well, it's a dick move.

 

[Kioku]

This is bad news. Companies now targeting fan projects. Can't see whats wrong with improving a game through emulation. Don't most PC games have mods which improve gameplay.

Companies have been doing this for a while now... It's no surprise Take Two is in on it.

 

[PiracyForTheMasses]

Most of you are missing the point. It's all fine and dandy to release mods and tools, what it's not fine to do is distribute game files that do not belong to you. Take Two have no issues with mods, they have an issue with someone violating copyright laws.

 

[Deleted User]

I get wanting to defend your IP if someone is working on some crazy mod that might reflect on your brand ... But stopping a project like this ?

When will company's learn to just embrace their communites and learn to enjoy the fact that people liked your game so much they are spending countless hours if their own time trying to make their favorite game even better

I was never a fan of red dead but I'm definitely not going to get the game again now. I refuse to support companies that do stuff like this

 

[PiracyForTheMasses]

HOW DARE THEY MODIFY A GAME THAT THEY BOUGHT AND OWN. It's fuckin stupid these game comapnies trying to stomp out modding it's not hurting anything. If we didn't have modding we wouldn't have basically every source game, alot of minecraft features and pubg. Same goes for people trying to modify their own hardware be that through custom firmware, hardware mods or even repair it's like companies think we don't own the hardware and software we well... own.

Wow you're such an idiot. How about you actually learn to read before thinking your opinion is fact. Do Take Two have issues with mods? No, they do not, and that's a known fact. What Take Two has issues with is some developer violating copyright laws and distributing files that he has no business distributing.

 

[Jokey_Carrot]

Wow you're such an idiot. How about you actually learn to read before thinking your opinion is fact. Do Take Two have issues with mods? No, they do not, and that's a known fact. What Take Two has issues with is some developer violating copyright laws and distributing files that he has no business distributing.

"Take-Two brings this action to maintain control over its world-famous video games in the face of Wyckoff’s publicly stated intent to distribute unauthorized software files that would dramatically change the content of Take-Two’s video games."

 

[Deleted User]

Do Take Two have issues with mods? No, they do not, and that's a known fact.

they're the ones that said modding was illegal back when they sent a C&D to openiv lol

take2 losing their shit over modding again lol, nothing much new, just retarded companies being retarded.

 

[FAST6191]

A thought occurred
"importing the entire game map of 2010’s Red Dead Redemption into the 2018 game Red Dead Redemption II"

Do we know what was done here?

Spoilers of a sort.

Isn't the map largely in the game already? I thought the option to revisit the first game's map was a post game bonus. Now depending upon what was done as far as extras (I am told in game a plague or something has basically killed everybody there), missions and whatnot that would change things but I am now curious what both the notice said and original mod was doing.

 

[JFizDaWiz]

after READING it it appears they are shutting it down because his intentions were to SHARE copyrighted material.
now if he created a tool that extracted the assets and a tool to inject said assets into RDR2 that should be fine, does not appear that was the goal.

 

[XDel]

Big corps don't like to be out done, especially for free. This is why AM2R was taken down, because it was superior.

 

[IncredulousP]

A copyright society is less culturally rich than a copyleft society.

Are they legally justified to sue? Sure. Are they complete assholes? Yep.

 

[Deleted User]

Ripping your own backup and emulating it is perfectly legal. Pretty sure creating your own code is too as long as that code isn't designed to damage someone else's use of software.