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!