Riki.PR.15

Keep modding guys, no one knows, no one cares, honestly... OpenIV won't be outdated except for some newer DLC's most likely, so mod to your hearts content. I'm a keep at it for as long as I can. I'm not buying a nother Rock* game. Police 1013 should have an Alpha out by next January - June
 

There's an upside should this turn out to be true, and they screw us all over, I will have 60 odd gigabytes of space free as I won't be playing that excuse of an Online Experience.
 
Get with it Take 2.

Well, I'm f*cked.
 
Those nasty f*cks picked the wrong time to get rid of OpenIV. I'm right now in modding nirvana, it seems. I have two pages of mods that I ENJOY making, but the thing is, for some reason, my Windows 10 computer is unable to take screenshots in-game. I need to use OpenIV's WFT viewer for this, as you may find, so I can appease both the admins and the potential downloader.
 
Sure, OpenIV likes to mess up my vehshare and my resident.rpf, but the thing is, I'm only modding for GTA IV, and I'm like the most active modder there right now. Sure, there may be some legal loophole in GTA IV, and sure, GTA V was a pain in the arse to mod, but my contributions here have been a pillar of my involvement in the modding community. 
 
The world's out to get me during these exam times, I'm sure of this.  But this is the biggest blow to the GTA IV modding community since GTAPoliceMods shut down. I'm not updating my OpenIV out of fear, so I can't use that anymore. And SparkIV doesn't have a WFT viewer.
 
Nobody really knows how much it has affected my corner of mods. But let me tell you something - for keeping within site rules, it is REALLY BAD.

IF this is bullshit, why would OpenIV comply?  Again, the OpenIV team aren't idiots.  For them to receive some random C&D should have them skeptical and trying to verify its legitimacy.  Seeing as OpenIV has already taken the steps to shut down, whoever contacted them has to have something that shows they are an active employee with T2.  I'm just saying, the OpenIV team wouldn't be so quick to do as instructed unless they genuinely believed in the authenticity.
 
In regards to the actual letter itself, it does look bullshit.  It looks like someone from the EU who has only been in the US for a month wrote it.  I'm normally not one to freak the fuck out, but the reason folks such as myself are getting so upset is because we have put a lot of time into modding our game.  We have taken a lot of time to personalize the game to how we want it.  My game is fully modded out.  Audio, characters, graphics, cars. I have over 4 DLCs filled with standalone cars.  The very idea of all my modding efforts going out the window enrages me.  I'd be just as mad if Rockstar pushed out an update for a file I didn't have backed up, which ruined my entire game. (Mind you, my normal backup method works flawlessly.  It's when Rockstar randomly updates a different file, such as Steam_API)
 
Ultimately, most of us here just want to play games how we want to and enjoy it.  The idea that someone is trying to stop us from doing this is what makes most of us so mad.  If we rented the game, I could get behind suing someone who modified it.  In this case, we spent $60 on the game.  It's OUR game now.  Rockstar does ultimately own it, but so do we.  We can do as we please with the game so long as it doesn't infringe upon GTA Online or Rockstar (redistributing).
 
If this is some gag, good, we can move on in a few days.  If not, goodbye LSPDFR and GTA. I will never be purchasing another GTA title.

lol GTA 5 Mods had to take down one of my mods due to it sharing default game files (The vehicles are uv map for customization so no they are not just the default files). They figured out what it was and are going to allow it for now. Everyone is blowing this way out of proportion before anyone knows any true facts.
 
The bad most backing factor I could find about this issue as of today: I downloaded the new gun runner update on my xbox 1 version of the game. I've never seen it before but I got a disclaimer to report any abuse of GTA Online and it would be reviewed and appropriately be handle if any exploit were found and if you are found using any, your account would be banned/disabled. (This is not the exact wording but I'm generalizing). I've never recall seeing this in the past nor do I know if its been there for a while already but odd this comes around the same time. Yet again this ONLY APPLIES TO GTA ONLINE!
 
For Rock star games to change all of there files to a different format would be a lot of work  for the company to do and I frankly do not believe it. Try explaining to a greedy corp executive that you need thousands, millions of dollars to basically remake a game to stop single player exploits that cost them no money to be exploited. This  would get turned down right away (Common greedy knowledge tells you if it doesn't cost you money why worry about it). So the file change thing I'm skeptical about. Also whats to stop another coder from coming along and breaking the code for those files? Then they just wasted all that money for nothing.
 
The good. Take 2 and rock star games have a lot of money. They could easily afford to have a legal document properly proof read before sending it to the person or persons being served the document and translated properly as well. The grammar of the letter brings so much doubt of its authenticity that I am very skeptical about it. PC Gamer recalled and I even remember when an ARK modder sent a bogus cease and deists letter to another modder who made Pokemon replace Dinosaurs  in the game and led to  forcing the mod shut down TEMPORARILY as a prank. That could very well be what this is. More  skepticism I have with this is that OpenIV never published the letter entirely. Just bits and pieces of it. They don't have a Legal obligation not to post the entire letter. If they did then they violated it by revealing the poorly written grammar portion of the letter which in there post they clearly say it is written that way on the cease and deists letter.
 
With all of the above however I do understand the precaution of You Tubers discontinuing there episodes in fear as in some cases YouTube is there main source of revenue and can't afford to lose it as well as other sites taking pre cautionary actions over modding.
 
But with all that being said. Wait until someone gets a hold of Rockstar Games and/or Take 2 and get there side of the story to prove its authenticity. I'm not saying to get your hopes up here because I could be wrong but no one has been available for comment as of yet. With a gaming magazine as big as PC Gamer inquiring about the accusations and them not responding leads up to three scenarios:
 
They haven't responded because they are not aware of any such letter (That is what I'm hoping for anyways).
 
They were not available for comment because the time the post was released was after normal business hours (Could be a possibility).
 
Or they are trying to come up with a legal Pro PR way of coming out about the cease and desist letter and trying to save face with the community (Most likely)
 
However we always have rockstar pretty much okay with it via there  blog okaying the modding of single player:
 
Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/05/07/grand-theft-auto-5-pc-mods-get-seal-of-approval-from-rockstar-games
 
Read on below, via Rockstar Games' official blog. Emphasis added.
"We have always appreciated the creative efforts of the PC modding community and we still fondly remember the awesome zombie invasion mod and original GTA map mod for GTAIV PC among many other classics. To be clear, the modding policy in our license has not changed and is the same as for GTAIV.  Recent updates to GTAV PC had an unintended effect of making unplayable certain single player modifications. This was not intentional, no one has been banned for using single player modifications, and you should not worry about being banned or being relegated to the cheater pool just for using single player PC mods. Our primary focus is on protecting GTA Online against modifications that could give players an unfair advantage, disrupt gameplay, or cause griefing. It also bears mentioning that because game mods are by definition unauthorized, they may be broken by technical updates, cause instability, or affect your game in other unforeseen ways."
So in short, Rockstar supports the use of single-player mods in Grand Theft Auto 5. Rejoice!
 
 

Very true. But my whole concern over the legitimacy of this supposed attack on OpenIV is why did R* send a C&D to them over a week ago, and nothing to FiveM (Which actually messes with Online shit) over the same course of time. It is all very suspicious to me. 
 
Remain skeptical everyone.
In the past they successfully took down many multiplayer mods, or made them unusable. FiveM somehow avoided that (For now)

I know a lot of you'll around here are children and don't remember this, but this is similar to the Y2K scare - and we survived that. Yes, this is bad, but everyone needs to chill out and relax. This community is very large and filled with very intelligent people, modding isn't going anywhere and I am more than certain we will find ways to adapt.

What Rockstar and Take2 doesn't realize or care about is that most of us on this forum, and most of the people that mod GTA, only play GTA for the mods.  I previously owned GTA V on PS3.  The SOLE reason I sought after a gaming rig was FOR modding GTA.  If it wasn't for modding, I'd of never bought this game again. 
 
The stupidity is very strong here.  Why try so hard to kill something that brings new experiences and longevity to your game?  Is LSPDFR type gameplay what you wanted GTA to be? Probably not, but you need to fucking ADAPT.  Whether you like it or not, modding will always be a thing.  Get on board with it, or you'll always have a stick up your ass.

Thank you!
 
Modding is not illegal. Everybody needs to realize that the issue here is between Take 2 and OpenIV. 
 
Take2 is basically saying that OpenIV is violating Take2's intellectual property rights and they must stop or face a lawsuit. OpenIV simply decided not to fight this time.  
 
While you techniically only own a license to GTA5, nothing stops you from opening the game up and making any changes you want to the code, to your own detriment if you dont understand how to do it
 
Modding software such as OpenIV and  RPH stand  alot closer to the legal line because they facilitate the editing of Take2 software at a public level and have the ability to (and have) profited from it via donations or other means. This is where OpenIV and RPH and even LSPDFR are vulnerable.
 
Individual players arent at risk and companies like Take2 would be foolish to try to go after each individual for violoating their license agreement. It would be extremely bad PR for them.
 
 
 

I created a petition against the closing of OpenIV to TTI, and R* Games:
"For 10 years now the Grand Theft Auto series has been edited and modded by people to make the game more enjoyable. Hundreds if not thousands of people have bought one or all of Grand Theft Auto: SA, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Grand Theft Auto V. The modding of these games have been done mostly in singleplayer and with the help of OpenIV, a software that lets you get into the game's files and replace vehicles, scripts, textures, etc. The closing of OpenIV leaves 1000s of people without access to be able to mod their games, and leaves 1000s of people without the ability to continue their hobbies. All modding used by OpenIV is for singleplayer use only to make the game more enjoyable, the software OpenIV was never used to mod multiplayer or Grand Theft Auto Online so it does not harm anyone. Myself, and other members of the LSPDFR and GTA modding community ask that OpenIV be allowed to continue distributing and running as a modding software. Thank you."
 
https://www.change.org/p/rockstar-games-save-openiv