What a major victory for every member of the GTA modding community that kept backing the OpenIV team. Very grateful to everybody who signed the petition, left a negative Steam review and covered this in news articles.

 

Most unfortunately, we've also seen people leave, call all single player modding (including scripting) illegal, say you'd get lawyers at your door if you continued to use OpenIV, say they'd switch their gameplay to FiveM to "abide by Take Two's wishes" (Take Two took down FiveM months ago and hasn't given permission to continue its development) and a load of other absurdities. Excuses and claims which are no more than a steaming pile of old baloney!

I felt obliged to do an impromptu stream to bust all these ridiculous lies and to thank those that stuck by the single player modding community and OpenIV. You should really consider throwing OpenIV a donation for their thousands of hours of work and to support them in all the stress they've been having over unwarranted legal fears - without the OpenIV developers, you'd be stuck with default vehicles, peds, visuals and textures.

 

 

Furthermore, major thanks to @t0y for creating and promoting his game-changing petition which accumulated over 80k signatures.

 

Keep modding! 

Edited June 23, 20178 yr by Albo1125

i love you albo

I know this is way far in the future but IF we get OpenIV back, will the Liberty City in GTA 5 map be continued as well?

5 minutes ago, rmckinstry said:

I know this is way far in the future but IF we get OpenIV back, will the Liberty City in GTA 5 map be continued as well?

Highly unlikely, as I explain in my stream I believe this is one of the main reasons OpenIV was C&Dd in the first place.  Additionally, (iii) use or importation of other IP (including other Rockstar IP) in the project is one of the guidelines issued by Rockstar on what mods shouldn't do.

Edited June 23, 20178 yr by Albo1125

2 minutes ago, Albo1125 said:

Highly unlikely, as I explain in my stream I believe this is one of the main reasons OpenIV was C&Dd in the first place.  Additionally, (iii) use or importation of other IP (including other Rockstar IP) in the project is one of the guidelines issued by Rockstar on what mods shouldn't do.

Thats disappointing but understandable. At least OpenIV is back.

30 minutes ago, Albo1125 said:

Most unfortunately, we've also seen people leave, call all single player modding (including scripting) illegal, say you'd get lawyers at your door if you continued to use OpenIV, say they'd switch their gameplay to FiveM to "abide by Take Two's wishes" (Take Two took down FiveM months ago and hasn't given permission to continue its development) and a load of other absurdities.

 

Unfortunately a lot of people got sucked in very quickly by the drama.  Was quite surprising to see all of the "doom and gloom" everywhere, actually.  

Still, this seems like a good outcome, although it'll be interesting to see how the situation with OpenIV develops.  My guess is that will be a tricky situation for Rockstar - if they allow OpenIV to continue, then since a legal notice has been filed, they will surely need to retract that and instead give them some sort of official permission.  Would be a first for sure, as far as I know.

48 minutes ago, Albo1125 said:

Most unfortunately, we've also seen people leave, call all single player modding (including scripting) illegal, say you'd get lawyers at your door if you continued to use OpenIV,

 

 

 

A popular Youtuber who is with a group that is well known on this forum called it quits in fear of "legal action."  I told him how wrong he was, and how nothing could be done against him because he wasn't committing a crime. Of course, as a Youtuber, he 100% knows everything and knows that he'll go to jail for showing gameplay of modded GTA.  Just watch, this same dude will start doing LSPDFR full time again now that he "doesn't risk legal action".

 

3 minutes ago, Deputy Rourke said:

 

A popular Youtuber who is with a group that is well known on this forum called it quits in fear of "legal action."  I told him how wrong he was, and how nothing could be done against him because he wasn't committing a crime. Of course, as a Youtuber, he 100% knows everything and knows that he'll go to jail for showing gameplay of modded GTA.  Just watch, this same dude will start doing LSPDFR full time again now that he "doesn't risk legal action".

 

It's a difficult situation for some people, as there's many that rely on YouTube pretty much for their entire livelihood.  To lose their channel over a legal dispute like this could be a serious problem for them, so it's understandable why some have chosen to exercise caution.

 

Still, I commend those that have fought on regardless :)

45 minutes ago, Albo1125 said:

Most unfortunately, we've also seen people leave, call all single player modding (including scripting) illegal, say you'd get lawyers at your door if you continued to use OpenIV...

Honestly, anybody who actually believed that, lets call it, Doctor GTA slander, and left modding... maybe it was for the best that they're gone. That's like, dangerously moronic.

10 minutes ago, Sam said:

 

It's a difficult situation for some people, as there's many that rely on YouTube pretty much for their entire livelihood.  To lose their channel over a legal dispute like this could be a serious problem for them, so it's understandable why some have chosen to exercise caution.

 

Still, I commend those that have fought on regardless :)

 

I completely get that.  Still, this guy packed his bags and fucked off from modding.  Didn't try to offer his support, just caved in and gave to what Take-Two demanded.   This is partially why Take Two did it.  They expected people to put their tail between their legs and embrace their demands.  It just baffles me how someone who has so much fun with LSPDFR and says he loves it would be so quick to throw it away without even trying to put up a fight. 

 

8 minutes ago, Lundy said:

Honestly, anybody who actually believed that, lets call it, Doctor GTA slander, and left modding... maybe it was for the best that they're gone. That's like, dangerously moronic.

 

Exactly.  A lot folks seem to be uninformed about the laws.  What really angers me is that people BELIEVED Rockstar could make modding illegal.  Are you serious? Are you that stupid?  Rockstar/Take Two does not have the power to make laws.

22 minutes ago, Sam said:

To lose their channel over a legal dispute like this could be a serious problem for them, so it's understandable why some have chosen to exercise caution.

The cease & desist was issued to the OpenIV development team and prohibited the development and distribution of OpenIV by them.

 

The use of OpenIV by others was not covered in the C&D nor did Take Two order OpenIV users to stop using it. Editing local files on your own PC for use in a sandboxed single player environment doesn't break any laws nor goes against anything Take Two/Rockstar have said. Using these mods in a (cloned) online environment is a different matter altogether, however.

10 minutes ago, Deputy Rourke said:

I completely get that.  Still, this guy packed his bags and fucked off from modding.  Didn't try to offer his support, just caved in and gave to what Take-Two demanded.   This is partially why Take Two did it.  They expected people to put their tail between their legs and embrace their demands.  It just baffles me how someone who has so much fun with LSPDFR and says he loves it would be so quick to throw it away without even trying to put up a fight. 

Couldn't agree more. It's saddening and shocking really, especially considering the fact recording modded GTA has proven to be what brings bread on the table for some.

Edited June 23, 20178 yr by Albo1125

2 minutes ago, Albo1125 said:

The cease & desist was made to the OpenIV development team and prohibited the development and distribution of OpenIV by them.

 

The use of OpenIV by others was not covered in the C&D nor did Take Two order OpenIV users to stop using it. Editing local files on your own PC for use in a sandboxed single player environment doesn't break any laws. Using these mods in a (cloned) online environment is a different matter altogether, however.

 

Couldn't agree more. It's saddening and shocking really, especially considering the fact recording modded GTA has proven to be what brings bread on the table for some.

 

I think a lot of the confusion stemmed from OpenIV itself, really.  They had a post on their site that literally said modding had been declared illegal.  It was obviously effective in mobilizing support, but clearly it caused some confusion and overreactions too.

 

We did notice that a lot of people seemed to be misinformed, and that's why we put up our special page trying to clarify things in a way which we thought was fairly objective.

 

But you know what?  While, sure, some of what was said and done over the past few weeks was pretty questionable, this looks to be a good result on the whole.  I'm really quite proud of the way that we as a community responded, and it's been great to see the level of support that we, as people who like mods, have received.

 

Let's not take away from that with a blame game.

3 minutes ago, Sam said:

 

I think a lot of the confusion stemmed from OpenIV itself, really.  They had a post on their site that literally said modding had been declared illegal.  It was obviously effective in mobilizing support, but clearly it caused some confusion and overreactions too.

 

We did notice that a lot of people seemed to be misinformed, and that's why we put up our special page trying to clarify things in a way which we thought was fairly objective.

 

But you know what?  While, sure, some of what was said and done over the past few weeks was pretty questionable, this looks to be a good result on the whole.  I'm really quite proud of the way that we as a community responded, and it's been great to see the level of support that we, as people who like mods, have received.

 

Let's not take away from that with a blame game.

Yup, the FAQ definitely seemed to be effective and the overwhelmingly positive response by the community as a whole really made me very happy to be part of it.

I'm very glad it's all over 

4 minutes ago, Albo1125 said:

Yup, the FAQ definitely seemed to be effective and the overwhelmingly positive response by the community as a whole really made me very happy to be part of it.

I'm very glad it's all over 

 

Absolutely.  Kirsty from the GTANet team said this is a day that'll go down in history for the community.  I definitely agree.

Here's hoping that OpenIV can get back on track.  Being optimistic now, but Rockstar might even throw them a bone or two!

i still dont see how this is cleared up .. they said they like us creative types but wont allow 3rd party programs .. aka openiv... so its not fixed nor is it cleared up and not to mention then said they can revoke their own statement at anytime for any reason... so personally i suggest the community not stop shitting on cuckstar and t2dicks so as to continue to show them we do not and will not support this type of behavior from other games studios.

3 hours ago, Hystery said:

So T2 openly admits they are a bunch of idiots for saying OpenIV allowed for "malicious online mods", and that their excuse for taking down OpenIV was a complete and utter lie. What a beautiful company of retards.

Perfect summary of the situation. 

Your welcome @Sam

they felt the burn....don't fuck with pc modding

While it's encouraging, we still don't know how this will all turn out in the end, so let's not be too hasty popping the champagne and mending relationships.

Edited June 24, 20178 yr by The Loot

4 hours ago, TickleMyElmo said:

i still dont see how this is cleared up .. they said they like us creative types but wont allow 3rd party programs .. aka openiv... so its not fixed nor is it cleared up and not to mention then said they can revoke their own statement at anytime for any reason... so personally i suggest the community not stop shitting on cuckstar and t2dicks so as to continue to show them we do not and will not support this type of behavior from other games studios.

 

So it's basically Rockstar and Take2 backtracking their stance on single player modding as far as their legal team will let them while reserving their rights if they feel anything crosses the line.

 

In general, No IP owner is going surrender it's rights to a property and free it to the world to use as they please as long as there is money at stake.  But this is a step in the right direction for single player mods. Its basically T2 and R* saying do what you do on the SP side but we're watching and will take action as needed. 

 

I actually think  the events over the past week has put many studios on notice and many should approach the same subject form their IP cautiously.