OpenIV GTA Modding Tool Shuts Down After Take-Two Sends Cease And Desist
OpenIV one of the most popular modding tools in GTA is now no more. the creators of the tools have received a Cease and Desist letter from Take-Two Interactive the owner of Rockstar Games and unfortunately, after 10 years of operation, they will have to shut down their service. which means any mods done through the software within GTA will now become obsolete and die.
The tool was basically used as an editor for both GTA 4, GTA 5 and even Max Payne 3. users used it to create various mods like vehicles, weapons and even modifying and creating new structures. it was meant for offline use and in no way affected the online version of the games.
According to the new post on the Official website, the Russian programmers received a cease and desist both through letter and electronically which stated that they are violating the rights of the software by allowing third parties break through the security feature by modifying them.
On June 5th, 2017, we had received an official Cease-and-Desist letter.
It clearly says, that with OpenIV we “allow third parties to defeat security features of its software and modify that software in violation Take-Two’s rights“. Yes, this letter is illiterate both technically and grammatically (really, they don’t even bothered with proof-reading the text). Yes, we can go to court and yet again prove that modding is fair use and our actions are legal. Yes, we could. But we decided not to.
The openIV team after discussion on the topic decided that they won’t go to court. creator of the mod Good-NTS further added
Going to court will take at least few months of our time and huge amount of efforts, and, at best, we’ll get absolutely nothing. Spending time just to restore status quo is really unproductive, and all the money in the world can’t compensate the loss of time. So, we decided to agree with their claims and we’re stopping distribution of OpenIV. It was a hard decision, but when any modding activity has been declared illegal, we can’t see any possibilities to continue this process, unless top management of Take-Two company makes an official statement about modding, which can be used in court.
Almost ten years of my life were dedicated to @OpenIV and now this time is over. #openiv #modding
— GooD-NTS (@goodnts) June 14, 2017
Take-Two action has angered the entire modding community and GTA fans. even Rockstar has said previously that they are ok with modding in the game. it is one of the highly used features of the game. though players can still use the single player mods like trainers they are nothing when compared to the OpenIV.
Honestly, If the problem was regarding the security issue caused by the tool then the company could have just altered OpenIV devs and worked together with them to solve the issue but NO, instead the decided to completely shut it down.
Though Take-Two has shut down OpenIV it will be only a matter of time that we may see another version of the editing tools. currently, there is a petition going on Change.org to re-allow the use of the mod.