Rockstar Issues Copyright Strikes Against OG Grand Theft Auto Developer Over Early Game Footage

Grand Theft Auto

Gee, it’s almost like the studio’s soul is completely gone!

The creator of Grand Theft Auto, Mike Dailly, has been hit with copyright strikes on YouTube for his own work. Dailly was with the studio since they were known as DMA Design, and even worked on Lemmings back in the day. And, considering the fact that he worked with YoYoGames on the GameMaker Studio software, it’s really no surprise that he used a lot of the original prototype footage and documentation for the original Grand Theft Auto as teaching tools.

Rockstar, apparently, didn’t like that. And so, the copyright strikes. And Dailly wasn’t terribly happy about it, to say the least.

The videos in question were uploaded to YouTube, making those copyright strikes all the more dickish. They portrayed early prototype footage of Grand Theft Auto, such as early renders and graphics engines. One showed the game back when it was meant to be isometric while the other was the familiar top-down style. He also, just to be safe, took down a quarter-century-old design document for GTA2 that he had posted to Twitter.

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Speaking to PC Gamer, he said that the strikes were due to posting the footage “without permission”.

He also decided to throw an extra bit of shade by giving everyone a glimpse of a GTA design document that would never be shown off online.

You might draw some parallels in this with what happened with former Bungie composer Marty O’Donnell. In both cases, the company is well within their rights to do what they did, it’s true. However, considering what was being done with said materials by either party, the company comes off as massive fucking assholes for doing it. And nobody’s going to let them forget it.

https://twitter.com/DaveTheScwede/status/1561384460024778755

So, considering that he was using these videos and documents from two over 25-year-old games as teaching materials, it’s hard to view Rockstar as being in the right morally, even if they are legally.

Source: IGN

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B. Simmons

Based out of Glendale California, Bryan is a GAMbIT's resident gaming contributor. Specializing in PC and portable gaming, you can find Bryan on his 3DS playing Monster Hunter or at one of the various conventions throughout the state.

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