Take-Two Interactive shuts down Reversed Engineered versions of GTA III and Vice City

Take-Two Interactive, the owners of Rockstar Games, have shut down a fan-created project that reversed engineered GTA 3 and GTA Vice City.

The project, created by a small group of GTA Fans over the course of a few years, reversed engineered the two games, along with releasing fan-created source code for both of the games which were available on Github.

The group had fixed bugs in the games, removed loading screens when going to different islands, added widescreen support and controller support with modern-day controllers. Updated HUD and lots more, they made the game feel more up to date.

As of this morning, the projects are no longer available to download on Github, when visiting the page you are hit with a DMCA takedown notice.

Its not really surprising Take-Two Interactive have taken it down, considering Take-Two is full of old dinosaurs that don’t like people making improvements.

The team have uploaded on Github the entire DMCA request from Take-Two which you can view below

Are you the copyright holder or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf?

Yes, I am the copyright holder.

Please describe the nature of your copyright ownership or authorization to act on the owner’s behalf.

I am [private] at Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., the parent company of Rockstar Games.

Please provide a detailed description of the original copyrighted work that has allegedly been infringed. If possible, include a URL to where it is posted online.

The content in the links below consists of copyrighted materials owned by Take-Two. The use of our copyrighted content in these links are unauthorized and it should be removed immediately.

Link to GTA 3 page https://www.rockstargames.com/games/grandtheftauto3

Link to Vice City Page https://www.rockstargames.com/games/vicecity

What files should be taken down? Please provide URLs for each file, or if the entire repository, the repository’s URL.

All Github links were added in this section

Have you searched for any forks of the allegedly infringing files or repositories? Each fork is a distinct repository and must be identified separately if you believe it is infringing and wish to have it taken down.

Yes. They are all linked above.

[Note: Because the parent repository was actively being forked when this DMCA takedown notice was received, and the submitter had identified all known forks at the time they submitted the takedown notice, GitHub processed the takedown notice against the entire fork network.]

Is the work licensed under an open source license? If so, which open source license? Are the allegedly infringing files being used under the open source license, or are they in violation of the license?

The work is not licensed in any way.

What would be the best solution for the alleged infringement? Are there specific changes the other person can make other than removal? Can the repository be made private?

The best and only solution is complete removal of the aforementioned pages.

Do you have the alleged infringer’s contact information? If so, please provide it.

We do not.

I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, or its agent, or the law.

I have taken fair use into consideration.

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner, or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

I have read and understood GitHub’s Guide to Submitting a DMCA Takedown Notice.

So that we can get back to you, please provide either your telephone number or physical address.

[private]
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
110 W. 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
Email: [private]

Please type your full legal name below to sign this request.

[private]

Source: Github DMCA notice