Florida man Jhonny Perez, creator of the Grand Theft Auto Online cheat program Elusive, has been found guilty by default by a district court in New York of copyright infringement, and has been penalised with both a fine and legal costs.
As Torrent Freak report, Elusive was a cheat program that allowed Grand Theft Auto Online players to circumvent the game’s rules and economy, even letting them generate unlimited currency.
Take-Two, publishers of the game, contacted Perez last year and ordered him to cease the sale (users had to purchase Elusive) and distribution of the software. He complied with this request, but further moves to contact him were met with silence, including an initial attempt at discovering how much money Perez had made selling the cheats, and whether an out of court settlement could be reached.
Because of this the publisher went ahead with a lawsuit, and when Perez didn’t show to defend himself the court found in Take-Two’s favour by default, saying that “Take-Two has been irreparably harmed by Mr. Perez’s infringing conduct”, and that “the Infringing Program harms Take-Two’s reputation for maintaining its gaming environment, discouraging users from future purchases and gameplay.”
Take-Two have been awarded $US150,000 in damages, with Perez also ordered to pay $US70,000 in legal fees, which adds up just over to $307,000 in Australian dollars.
You can read a full copy of the court’s finding at Torrent Freak.
Comments
10 responses to “Grand Theft Auto Online Cheater Owes Take-Two Over $300,000”
That’s ok, he can just spawn in the money right?
Hahahahahahaha eat shit
They damaged there own reputation by putting shark cards in the game, making things overly expensive and nerfing xp/cash rewards.
A mate of mine made the point that buying a shark card was more economical than actually grinding for the equivalent amount of money, as in working in real life to buy a shark card was quicker than playing the game for the same amount of money.
Not defending him, he was making money from it if he was given it away for free it would be a different story.
Pretty much irrelevant whether he is selling it or not as it would still cause harm to the product and the developers. Arguably more harm if he distributed it for free.
I agree. Not relevant whether it was sold or not. He distributed a tool designed so others can be tools. Deserves everything he’s getting.
Part of the lawsuit was about finding out how much he made from its sale, I don’t see him paying anything anyway but if he just made the cheat programme and released it for free I don’t think they would of sued him for damages.
The negative PR would of cost more than any amount they would of been awarded which they more than likely won’t receive.
The cheat enabled players to circumvent having to purchase in game currency. So there would have been financial loss to take-two in sales regardless of him making money from the cheat. Easily calculable from average player spend x #players using this cheat which was estimated to be at least $500k according to take-two.
Negative PR?! For exercising their legal right to protect their IP and keep cheaters out of the game? Don’t think so!
When it comes to GTA Online I think Take-Two (and Rockstar) have done a good enough job of irreparably harming their own reputation, as well as suitably discouraging people from future purchases and gameplay, with a predatory game design that doesn’t rely on the ‘assistance’ of anyone else to help it along.
What is my perfect crime? I break into Tiffany’s at midnight. Do I go for the vault? No, I go for the chandelier. It’s priceless. As I’m taking it down, a woman catches me. She tells me to stop. It’s her father’s business. She’s Tiffany. I say no. We make love all night. In the morning, the cops come and I escape in one of their uniforms. I tell her to meet me in Mexico, but I go to Canada. I don’t trust her. Besides, I like the cold. Thirty years later, I get a postcard. I have a son and he’s the chief of police. This is where the story gets interesting. I tell Tiffany to meet me in Paris by the Trocadero. She’s been waiting for me all these years. She’s never taken another lover. I don’t care. I don’t show up. I go to Berlin. That’s where I stashed the chandelier.