Believe it or not, Take-Two Interactive isn’t always supportive of the GTA modding community. Case in point, Take-Two issued DMCA takedown notices to individual modders two years ago, resulting in a lawsuit that eventually spiraled into something bigger as the modders fought back. Now, it appears that the involved parties have settled on a resolution.
The lawsuit started after Take-Two issued a DMCA takedown notice to “reverse-engineering project modders.” Instead of standing down, the modders issued a counternotice to GitHub, which resulted in the restoration of the files that Take-Two had asked GitHub to remove in the first place. This rebuttal prompted Take-Two to file the said lawsuit.
According to the modders, their modifications are mere improvements to already-existing codes, hinting that it’s protected under the Copyright and Infringement Act.
Now, over a year after this debacle, Take-Two and the defendants have filed a dismissal agreement with the Northern District of California Court.
As explained in the lawsuit, the “Named Defendants are dismissed with prejudice”, which means that Take-Two can’t take the modders back to court over the same case. The lawsuit also clarifies that the “remaining Defendants are not dismissed by this Stipulation.”
It isn’t clear if Take-Two received the $300,000 it claimed it was owed in damages or if both parties have agreed on another solution.
