A U.S. court is stepping in to help Take-Two Interactive prevent the spread of software that allows players to cheat at Grand Theft Auto Online.
Georgie U.S District Judge Luis Stratton imposed an injunction against David Zipperer for selling programs that let players manipulate data in GTA Online for their advantage. Essentially, these programs allow users to create and manipulate content in order to make their characters richer and significantly more capable. Those who wished to use these mods in GTA V‘s multiplayer mode had to pay the creator to do so.
Take-Two estimates that these mods damaged the GTA Online‘s in-game economy in such a way that may have led to them losing upwards of $500,000 of real-world currency.
As a result of this injunction, Zipperer will no longer be able to sell this kind of software. The ruling seems to be based on the judge’s belief that Take-Two would have been able to successfully argue that Zipperer’s actions have resulted in significant financial losses for the company both in terms of how it affected those who are already playing the game and how it may have discouraged other from purchasing the game due to the presence of such cheating software.
At this time, it does not seem that Zipperer is required to pay the damages that Take-Two is reporting. Neither he or his legal representatives have issued an official statement at this time. There’s also no word on how much money he made from these programs.
This isn’t the first time that Take-Two has gone after cheat manufacturers, and it won’t be the last time. The publisher plans to aggressively pursue legal actions against those who create programs which may detract from the experience of the game in a way that causes the company and its users’ potential financial loss.