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Take-Two has filed a lawsuit in California that is targeting 14 developers from all over the world that have been working together on what is known as the re3 project. This project has reverse engineered the source code for Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The project also made some improvements to the original games including bug fixes, a better camera, better controller support, widescreen support, and the removal of loading screens on PC.
The project gets a little murky though. VGC reports that reverse engineering the code as this team is doing means they aren't using leaked source code or the original code itself. Instead they are recreating the original games from scratch using modern coding languages. Projects like this also do not contain any of the original Rockstar created assets such as music, dialogue, or any imagery. This means that players do need to own their own copy of GTA 3 or Vice City to make their own port.
Take-Two's lawsuit says that the re project team is "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." Take-Two did attempt to remove re3 project from GitHub but some of the programmers filed "bad faith counter-notifications" that Take-Two claims "materially misrepresented the legality of their content, apparently claiming that because they allegedly 'reversed engineered' the Games' source code, they somehow cannot be liable for copyright infringement."
The lawsuit also claims that the project is causing "irreparable harm to Take-Two." That's a bit of an eyebrow raising statement if ever there was. Take-Two says that the project members "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 unauthorized, derivative versions of the games."
"By copying, adapting, and distributing source code and other content related to the games, defendants have deliberately and intentionally infringed Take-Two’s protectable expression.
"Take-Two has never authorized or given consent to defendants to use their copyrighted works in the manner complained of herein. Accordingly, defendants have infringed Take-Two’s exclusive rights under copyright."
"Take-Two has never authorized or given consent to defendants to use their copyrighted works in the manner complained of herein. Accordingly, defendants have infringed Take-Two’s exclusive rights under copyright."
