In early September, Take-Two filed a lawsuit against Angelo Papenhoff (AAP), Theo Morra, Eray Orçunus and Adrian Graber, the four men behind the re3 and reVC Grand Theft Auto fan project. Earlier this year, a group of programmers and GTA fans announced “Re3” and “reVC”, this is a reverse engineering modification of “GTA 3” and “GTA: Vice City“. These projects allow fans to enjoy these outdated games with major improvements and are welcomed by fans.
However, Take-Two stated that the purpose of these projects is to create and distribute pirated versions of GTA 3 and GTA: Vice City. The company seeks compensation under the copyright law, claiming that the team “intentionally and maliciously” copied, adapted and distributed its source code and other content without permission. Take-Two also seeks compensation for the defendant’s alleged misrepresentation in the DMCA counter-notification.
Currently, the four defendants have responded to the complaint through their lawyers. They responded to every accusation made by the plaintiff, denied them to a large extent, but in some cases stated that there was insufficient evidence to form a response. They insist that they have not committed any type of copyright infringement. Anything they do in GTA 3 and Vice City is fair use protection under copyright law. If any copying of copyrighted material does occur, this is done to allow interoperability of the software and fix errors in the original title.
Therefore, any so-called “reverse engineering” of the original code represents a transformative use of the content, that is, it adds new content with further purposes or different characteristics, and cannot replace the original use of the work. To a certain extent, copyright protection, if any, is necessary to allow software interoperability and keep it to the minimum required quantity.
The team further pointed out that the original game was released 15 years ago, and the plaintiff stopped releasing patches and bug fixes several years before any actions alleged by the defendant occurred. Another important fact emphasized in the response to the complaint is that the defendant’s amendment itself is useless. In fact, any player who wants to use “re3” and “reVC” must have a copy of “GTA 3” and “GTA: Vice City”, and Take-Two has stopped buying these games on its online store.
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This raises the question of whether the actions alleged by the defendant have affected the market for these games, and if so, in what way. According to the response, Mod did not affect the market, but in terms of its impact, it may be positive for T2, because people need to buy games to use Mod. Although it is now actively prosecuting the producers of “re3” and “reVC”, Take-Two has previously allowed third parties to develop modules of its software (including “GTA 3” and “GTA: Vice City”) without any disadvantage Response. And Take-Two demonstrated the modules and even released part of its software to the Multi Theft Auto (MTA) module project.
Take-Two’s complaint alleges that Angelo Papenhoff is a German resident, and the reply also acknowledges this. However, the claim that Theo Morra is an individual based in New Zealand has been denied. Similarly, deny that Eray Orçunus is located in Turkey and Adrian Graber is located in Germany. Although the defendant’s third affirmative defense (the extraterritorial application of U.S. law) did not explicitly quote these factors, the complaint stated that the case was conducted outside the U.S. U.S. copyright laws should not apply outside the U.S. and its territories.
If the plaintiff attempts to extend the scope of the U.S. copyright law to activities outside the U.S., it should be prohibited from making claims. And with the release of “GTA Trilogy: Ultimate Edition”, given the terrible performance, “re3” and “reVC” are more effective in their release.