Ah shit, here we go again.
Via Video Games Chronicle, it seems that Take-Two is filing a lawsuit against the fan group reverse engineering GTA 3 and Vice City. The suit, filed in California, names 14 programmers working on the project.
For those not in the know, the project in question, Re3 is a reverse engineering project for both games. Essentially, they reverse engineered the source code to these games using newer coding languages, implemented a number of new features and bugfixes, and even an elimination of load screens. That said, while they’re reverse engineered, they contain none of the actual assets from either game, so to build one for your system of choice (currently, they have Switch, PlayStation Vita and Wii U, in addition to PC) you have to own a legitimate copy of the game to begin with. This is actually important to understand, because the suit still asserts damages on Take-Two (which may still be the case, possibly, but…)
Take-Two did file a DMCA takedown in February. But…
According to Take-Two:
[The programmers] are well aware that they do not possess the right to copy, adapt, or distribute derivative GTA source code, or the audiovisual elements of the games, and that doing so constitutes copyright infringement.
[Three of the programmers] knowingly filed bad faith counter-notifications that materially misrepresented the legality of their content, apparently claiming that because they allegedly ‘reverse engineered’ the Games’ source code, they somehow cannot be liable for copyright infringement.
[The project is causing] irreparable harm to Take-Two, [and the programmers] 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 unauthorised, derivative versions of the gamesTake-Two
It is worth noting that this suit might not have the legs that Take-Two would like it to have. For example, there is a reverse engineering project for the source code to Super Mario 64 which was released last year. And while the notoriously litigious Nintendo did issue takedown and DMCA notices to various sites hosting the executable, as well as against videos showing off the project and sharing links in their descriptions, they’ve yet to file suit against the project members. I’m no lawyer, but if I had to guess why, it’s because this entire thing gets fairly murky thanks to some events during the 90’s console wars that might establish precedent.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that Rockstar is supposedly working on a Grand Theft Auto Remastered Trilogy (which allegedly includes GTA3 and Vice City), in case you were wondering about what the motivation is for them to get the legal system involved over two old-ass games.
So as to how this all will go, I’m not sure. But it could, possibly, wind up a win for the little guy in this case. It’s one to keep your eye on.
Source: IGN
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