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It looks like Take-Two and Rockstar are still keeping a close eye on the GTA V modding community as this week, the devs behind the widely used OpenIV mod tool received a cease and desist letter. Since Grand Theft Auto V's launch, Take-Two has been making a habit of policing the modding scene and has sent legal notices to several developers. OpenIV is the latest, leading to the modding tool being taken offline, after being in development for almost ten years.
OpenIV has been around for years and is described as “the ultimate modding tool” for not just GTA V, but GTA IV and Max Payne 3 as well. In a post titled Take Two VS. Modding, OpenIV developer ‘GooD-NTS' explained that modding has “always been a gray zone”, adding that due to the difficulties involved in going to court, the team behind OpenIV decided to just comply with Take-Two's C&D notice.
In Take-Two's words, OpenIV “allows third parties to defeat security features of its software and modify that software in violation Take-Two's rights”. According to GooD-NTS, this accusation is unfounded and while the team still believes OpenIV should be considered safe legally, legal battles take a lot of time and huge amount of effort for little gain.
“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”
So with all of that said, OpenIV is no longer in distribution. However, with the mod being so popular for so long, there may be some mirrored versions floating around the web.
KitGuru Says: Take-Two's stance on modding since the launch of GTA V has really been disheartening to see. Fans have loved modding the GTA games for years, it is part of the series' DNA but unfortunately, it seems no amount of bad PR is going to change Take-Two's mind at this point.
