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

 

[Clydefrosch]

[QUOTE="MikaDubbz, post: 9568973, member: 438041] You can't play these reverse engineered releases without still buying the actual games. [/QUOTE]

I heavily doubt most people who play this on switch or vita went through the trouble of buying those games or even just ripping the files themselves.

 

[Deleted member 514389]

They better bring that rumored BS Collection then...

.. otherwise they're just s.o. else throwing theur weight around.

 

[smf]

I do not understand the problem. You can't play these reverse engineered releases without still buying the actual games.

You can, by downloading the data files.

They aren't in themselves a form of piracy.

They are a clear copyright violation. I am surprised they waited so long after the projects were reinstated.

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.

How is that outrageous? I'm pretty sure in copyright law there isn't an exception for "it's ok to violate if you really want something".

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.

I assume they are arguing the code is complete and not just excerpts of the code for study which could come under fair use.

The code is their copyright even if you can't play it without other files.

 

[lordelan]

They didn't harm any copyright. They can't win.
It'd kill me if they'd win. Stupidness alarm.

 

[smf]

What the repository creates is precisely comparable to the executable file that the originals on PC had.

Which is copied without the permission of the copyright holder.

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

I hope they don't fight it for their own sake, but it will be an interesting case for sure. T2 losing would basically kill the copyright law.

I suspect it will be a re-run of the romuniverse case where someone makes some legal arguments based on hopes and dreams, but gets their ass handed to them on a plate.

 

[MrHuu]

From the Preliminary Statement, page 3:

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,..

That's an odd statement, the games are not fully and freely made available to the public.


From the re3 github:

- Extract the downloaded zip over your GTA 3 directory and run re3. The zip includes the binary, updated and additional gamefiles and in case of OpenAL the required dlls.

I wonder how complete the provided files are, in terms of original code and assets.

 

[linuxares]

Which is copied without the permission of the copyright holder.



I hope they don't fight it for their own sake, but it will be an interesting case for sure. T2 losing would basically kill the copyright law.

I suspect it will be a re-run of the romuniverse case where someone makes some legal arguments based on hopes and dreams, but gets their ass handed to them on a plate.

I'm waiting for you to say which copyright the exact copyright? That would kill emulators as well.

 

[masagrator]

I'm waiting for you to say which copyright the exact copyright? That would kill emulators as well.

Or even Atmosphere which is reproducing original code for many HOS sysmodules (they share the same functionality, but code is not 1:1 with original source code as produced binaries differ).

 

[linuxares]

Or even Atmosphere which is reproducing original code for many HOS sysmodules (they share the same functionality, but code is not 1:1 with original source code as produced binaries differ).

Exactly! That ain't illegal as far as I know...

 

[masagrator]

suspect it will be a re-run of the romuniverse case where someone makes some legal arguments based on hopes and dreams, but gets their ass handed to them on a plate.

romuniverse case is a bad example, because guy didn't get any lawyer which is itself a stupid move in all cases. Even sued lawyers hire other lawyers instead of representing themself.

 

[Foxi4]

I'm waiting for you to say which copyright the exact copyright? That would kill emulators as well.

Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem firmly entrenched the right to create computer programs that allow for launching other programs on otherwise incompatible host machines, aka emulation. Much like Bleem!, re3 and reVC contain no copyrighted code owned by another entity - they both merely create an environment in which an otherwise incompatible binary can run, albeit in different ways. Neither project constitutes copyright infringement, it is encumbent on the user to supply the necessary binaries that the program is supposed to run on the host machine - the creators of the program are not liable for how individual users obtain said binaries. The problem with lawsuits like this is that they can take forever unless they're argued well, in which case the sued party can simply be litigated against into bankruptcy, and the legal system offers no refunds. This was the case with Bleem!, but on the bright side, there now exists a legal precedent which protects others from similar frivolous action. Unless Rockstar can specifically point out the intellectual property that is being infringed upon, they are going to lose, and lose badly. If the court finds the action frivolous as well, the creators of reGTA have the option to countersue, although they would have to demonstrate damages that were a direct result of the previous suit in order to obtain any restitution.

romuniverse case is a bad example, because guy didn't get any lawyer which is itself a stupid move in all cases. Even sued lawyers hire other lawyers instead of representing themself.

The ROM Universe case is a bad example because there was clear copyright infringement going on. No such infringement is happening here - the creators of re3/reVC are not distributing or otherwise linking to copyrighted code.

 

[Vila_]

wow nintendo and rockstar have been on quite the rampage lately...

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Fuck Nintendo!

... oh wait...

 

[Deleted User]

can't wait for the Nintendo Lawsuit to happen once the OoT project is finalized

 

[eyeliner]

If they win, Nintendo will follow suit.
Let's hope they loose this one.

 

[Wavy]

can't wait for the Nintendo Lawsuit to happen once the OoT project is finalized

Nintendo didn't go after the Mario 64 decompilation, so I have no idea why they'd go after OoT.

 

[mightymuffy]

Ah yes good old Take Two, it's like they watch Nintendo being arseholes and then shout 'hold my bag..'
In these guys cases, taking down what is actually extending the shelf life of their products, well the mind fukkin boggles! Like has been said this should be a laughably big L for them, but part of me can't help but think they just might end up with some clueless dickhead judge agreeing with them.....

 

[SS4]

Even if their claim is bogus and they lose. Its a waste of time and money to defend yourself against rich entity like that.
Its basically just bullying and happens all the time.
Like our legal system is so great and with so little flaws rofl no way anyone would abuse it right

 

[Mark McDonut]

Fucking Morons.

This whole project is literally reverse-engineered renderware, (which was made and licensed by Dice, who could give two fucks about it now that it's no longer a licensed middleware) with tweaks to make each game run correctly.

I hope Rockstar gets slapped in court for falsifying information and suing for things they don't understand.

No wonder Leslie and Lazlo left.

 

[Deleted member 323844]

Nintendo didn't go after the Mario 64 decompilation, so I have no idea why they'd go after OoT.

I'd say it is even safer, since the team is only decompiling it, they're not porting it to any platform. Unlike SM64 team, that already ported the project to N64 and Linux iirc.