Back in February 19th, 2021, Take-Two sent DMCA notices to the reverse engineered projects re3 and reVC, (hosted on GitHub). After the takedowns, the project leaders filed a counter-claim, effectively restoring the projects and their whole repositories.

Today, September 2nd, 2021, Take-Two has taken legal action in the state of California, USA, claiming the projects and whole repositories are infringing on the copyrights of their games, Grad Theft Auto III & Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Not only is Take-Two suing the main repositories, but also against forks and derivative work (and the devs behind them) that sent the counter-claim back in February, like the PS Vita & Nintendo Switch forks.

The resolution of this case might be one of the biggest legal battles of recent years in terms of gaming, homebrew, hacking and reverse engineering, as other projects that have flourished under reverse engineered premises could be affected in the event of Take-Two winning the case.

Source

 

[The Catboy]

They sure can throw a lot of money into everything that isn’t GTA6

 

[MikaDubbz]

I do not understand the problem. You can't play these reverse engineered releases without still buying the actual games. They aren't in themselves a form of piracy. The most outrageous thing about them is that they let us play the games on systems they never released for and never were going to release for, like the Vita or Wii U. The only thing I can think that Rockstar would care about this for is that the supposed trilogy release is coming out for systems that this is available for like the Switch, which will cost more than buying each title separate and using them within the reverse engineered builds for the same system.

 

[ShadowOne333]

I do not understand the problem. You can't play these reverse engineered releases without still buying the actual games. They aren't in themselves a form of piracy. The most outrageous thing about them is that they let us play the games on system they never released for and never were going to release for, like the Vita or Wii U. The only thing I can think that Rockstar would care about this for is that the supposed trilogy release is coming out for systems that this is available for like the Switch, which will cost more than buying each title separate and using them within the reverse engineered builds for the same system.

Yeah it's a pretty idiotic thing they're claiming.
A good look at the repository tells everyone that all of the copyrighted assets must be taken directly from an official release of the games.
T2 is really pushing it hard and they might shoot themselves in the foot (wish I hope is the case)

 

[Mr.Faq2015]

I do not understand the problem. You can't play these reverse engineered releases without still buying the actual games. They aren't in themselves a form of piracy.

The document reads that Take Two claims the builds that the people provide on the repos (if any... haven't actually checked the repo) are fully functional and can be played. I would assume this is gonna be the breaking point as it's most certaintly wrong (again, no clue cos I haven't checked), but there's also a bunch of other things that are just wrong outside of the classic "legally demonizing the people you're suing". Also apparently you can still buy GTA on the Playstation 1 and the original Xbox (epic 2011 rereleases) according to Take Two...
Lovely lovely copyright circus, never ceases to amaze me

 

[Sheimi]

The document reads that Take Two claims the builds that the people provide on the repos (if any... haven't actually checked the repo) are fully functional and can be played. I would assume this is gonna be the breaking point as it's most certaintly wrong (again, no clue cos I haven't checked), but there's also a bunch of other things that are just wrong outside of the classic "legally demonizing the people you're suing". Also apparently you can still buy GTA on the Playstation 1 and the original Xbox (epic 2011 rereleases) according to Take Two...
Lovely lovely copyright circus, never ceases to amaze me

You can't even launch the game from the repo as you need the game files themselves in order to play. It straight up crashes due to missing assets. Their claim is bogus.

 

[ShadowOne333]

You can't even launch the game from the repo as you need the game files themselves in order to play. It straight up crashes due to missing assets. Their claim is bogus.

It's a borderline idiotic claim.
What the repository creates is precisely comparable to the executable file that the originals on PC had.
It's supposed to be basically the engine, to launch the game, but without the assets, it does jackshit on launch.

Bold action they are taking, and hopefully the whole gaming industry and companies like this learn the lesson the hard way.

 

[Wavy]

This is my favourite quote:

By copying, adapting, and distributing derivative and original source code for the Games, Defendants have made the Games fully and freely available to the public, have appropriated a market that belongs to Take-Two (namely, the market for modified or handheld versions of the Games), and enabled countless others to now create their own unauthorized, derivative versions of the Games.

They never stole your source code =P

 

[SaberLilly]

if this goes to court i can only imagine the look on T2s attorney's face when the devs prove that the repos do not run the game without the missing assets.

 

[AshuraZro]

I hope TakeTwo loses this and loses badly. This is a ridiculous measure to be taking against such projects.

 

[gudenau]

They need to lose this and if they do that will set an even stronger president for reverse engineering.

Hopefully the right lawyers are get on the right side of this and can win the case.

 

[ShadowOne333]

They need to lose this and if they do that will set an even stronger president for reverse engineering.

Hopefully the right lawyers are get on the right side of this and can win the case.

The lawyers AND the judge.
As long as the lawyers are competent enough in copyrigh laws and know their basic software stuff, they should be able to handle it well and send Take Two right the fuck off

 

[bobmcjr]

TakeTwo should really take a step back and think for a second when even Nintendo isn't DMCA'ing those N64 decompilations (well, yet at least).

But TakeTwo is obviously hoping their expensive legal tactic of screeching the loudest works again.


Man I fucking hate Q4. All the lawyers and laws come out of the woodwork this time of year trying to fuck up as much as they can in the hopes of some minor, nebulous stock value gains before the end of the fiscal year.

 

[linuxares]

Yeah it's a pretty idiotic thing they're claiming.
A good look at the repository tells everyone that all of the copyrighted assets must be taken directly from an official release of the games.
T2 is really pushing it hard and they might shoot themselves in the foot (wish I hope is the case)

I hope this falls under fair use. Since the code itself is remade from scratch, and the assets aren't provided.

EDIT: Shouldn't this sort of count as an emulator?

 

[GaryOderNichts]

They seem to sue the people who filed a counter DMCA. For example td512 aka "Theo M." who forked the repository and was the first who filed a counter DMCA is also mentioned in the lawsuit.

 

[Foxi4]

Easy L for Rockstar *unless* they luck out and get a judge with no understanding of the subject matter. The claim is incorrect, demonstrably so, so this won't be a terribly long lawsuit. They could've played it smart and argued that by adapting GTA games to run on hardware they were not originally intended for, or by distributing code which allows just that, the developers in question are reducing their business opportunity and affect the value of their products on the market (by reducing Rockstar's ability to secure future business by releasing ports). A vague claim, to be fair, but one that is actually accurate and could be argued in court.

 

[DinohScene]

Go homebrew!

 

[Xzi]

Such an asshole move. If they make decent remasters of these games, they'll overshadow the fan projects/ports regardless, so there's no good reason to force the removal of them.

 

[Jiehfeng]

This is definitely due to plans of releasing that trilogy, similar how Nintendo did so for Metroid fan projects twice before releasing their games.

I do wonder though how these tech cases go, who exactly helps the judge and everyone else understand the specifics to make arguments and whatnot as they surely have no clue.

 

[yuyuyup]

I'll spend the rest of my life actively discouraging people from buying Apple and Take Two.