US Judge Blocks Programs Letting 'Grand Theft Auto' Players 'Cheat' (reuters.com)
A federal judge has awarded Take-Two Interactive Software, the maker of the "Grand Theft Auto" series, a preliminary injunction to stop a Georgia man from selling programs that it said helps players cheat at the best-selling video game. From a report: Take-Two had accused David Zipperer of selling computer programs called Menyoo and Absolute that let users of the "Grand Theft Auto V" multiplayer feature Grand Theft Auto Online cheat by altering the game for their own benefit, or "griefing" other players by altering their game play without permission. U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in Manhattan said Take-Two was likely to show that Zipperer infringed its "Grand Theft Auto V" copyright, and that his programs would cause irreparable harm to its sales and reputation by discouraging users from buying its video games.
Georgia the US state, not Georgia the country.
It teaches bad values. In these trying times, we need to rid ourselves of things that set bad examples.
By stating that this is an illegal activity.
1. Offenders can be fined or impression.
2. Give software companies an other rule in the book to fight against.
3. Prevent legitimate business from doing such actions.
The issue at hand was if this action was illegal or not. Being in a gray areas some people would want to risk it more then if finally defined.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
same way he is going to stop russian hacking in elections.
GTA 5 is a pretty amazing game aside from the award winning bad UI (it literally got awards for being so bad). You can go anywhere, do anything you'd expect in a city. The sheer number of things to do is mind blowing.
However... it's taken them this long to act on the cheaters beyond simple bans. Proof being
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvJ_haYDh_w (from 4 years ago)
feel free to look.
The game is virtually unplayable when hackers get in the game
By cheating, you're infringing on their copyright. This is why you don't own games anymore, and just get a license to play it.
I AM THE LAW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
"Old man yells at systemd"
Both of these programs Menyoo and AbsoluteMenu are used in single player and have many legitimate and creative purposes.
The issue with people abusing these with hacked clients to break multiplayer rules on GTA's own servers shouldn't be able to prevent these 3rd party tools that have many legitimate and awesome uses from existing....
Also, a Publisher of video game software doesn't have any right to prevent people from altering the game or modifying their game playing experience for personal entertainment; Assuming the person doesn't use the game with an online service to cheat, but the recourse for cheating is to file suit against the person cheating on their service or ban them from their server -- not to prevent the distribution of tools.
I would have thought this was settled 2 decades ago when Nintendo sued Galoob over the Game Genie and lost (with the classic line "If I buy a car does the manufacturer have a right to tell me I can't paint it blue?").
I'm aware the dynamics change with micro transactions & online play, but let's put it another way: Does Microsoft have a right to ban you from using Greasemonkey with office 365 because they might want to sell you a plugin that does what you used to with a Greasemonkey script?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I don't think the guy should be allowed to do what he's doing, but nobody has made GTA online more unplayable than the developers. Fuck that p2w garbage, I hope they lose money.
Take-Two had accused David Zipperer of selling computer programs called Menyoo and Absolute that let users of the "Grand Theft Auto V" multiplayer feature Grand Theft Auto Online cheat...[f]or "griefing" other players by altering their game play without permission
So someone is getting in trouble for hijacking other players (game sessions) in a game called Grand Theft Auto?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
At least something is being done; even though it seems amusing, having millions in cash (or cars) spawned on top of you at least once during every play session is why I stopped playing it.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
I'm going to... write a sternly worded letter of complaint!
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
that line of thinking can be used to lock out repair at non dealer shops.
With copyright bs, and that can would cause irreparable harm to its sales and reputation by discouraging users from buying service and repair at dealer.
I'm not sure why the ruling was based on 'copyright infringement and causing irreperable harm to revenue'. This kind of cheating should fall under laws regarding computer crime.
Not this doesn't include things like modding or cheating in a single player game. The problem is that this is being done with devices not owned by the user - game servers, other players games. And this guy is distributing that software enabling it. Regardless of whether you love or hate this particular game - it's not the only game that has problems with people like David.
Take the newest 'big game' to come out, Monster Hunter: World. There are already 'cheats' (most people call them Hacks, as that's what the actually are) less than a week after the game came out. Among other things, they give people the ability to steal items from other players or givie them infinite items (which is completely impossible in this game without hacking.) Infinite items might 'sound' like a nice hack, but the game is entirely focused on hunting monsters for items - having an infinite amount of items removes the point of playing the game for most people. (I am simplifying why this is actually a bad thing.)
Sure, Capcom could have done a better job with preventing this. But just because a car was left unlocked, it doesn't make it legal to go in, take someones things and go on a joy ride (car analogy!).
Fucking Copyrights, how do they work?
I imagine this phrase goes through Judge Stanton's head at the start of every IP case.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I think it's a bit of a waste of court resources to be forced to deal with cheaters in video games.
But whatever, cheating in online games ruins the game for everyone, so I'm all for courts putting their foot down on this. I know in my own case, I pretty much don't play any online games anymore, because of griefing, cheating and generally barbaric manners.
Enforcing this ruling could be problematic though. It's notoriously difficult to take anything off the internet.
Hacks shouldn't happen in online games. The server should do all the checks and take all the decisions. If a hacked client can ruin other clients' games, then the online game is severely ill-designed.
Grand Cheat Loading V FTL