Rockstar: GTA single-player mods are "generally" safe from legal action

Take-Two has agreed that single-player mods for Grand Theft Auto will not be the target of legal action, following discussions with the series' creator, Rockstar Games.

In a statement issued to the press, Rockstar said it "believes in reasonable fan creativity", and it does not want to unnecessarily interfere with the "passion" evident among GTA's modding community.

"After discussions with Take-Two, Take-Two has agreed that it generally will not take legal action against third-party projects involving Rockstar's PC games that are single-player, non-commercial, and respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of third parties," the company said.

"This does not apply to (i) multiplayer or online services; (ii) tools, files, libraries, or functions that could be used to impact multiplayer or online services, or (iii) use or importation of other IP (including other Rockstar IP) in the project."

This clarifies the stance of both companies on mods for Grand Theft Auto, following a series of cease-and-desist orders in recent weeks. The most controversial by far was the withdrawl of OpenIV, which inspired the GTA community to inundate the GTA V Steam page with negative user reviews and gather almost 80,000 signatures for a petition to “Save OpenIV”.

It seems to have worked. According to Motherboard, Rockstar has been in contact with OpenIV's creator in an attempt to find a solution. An updated version of the mod was released over the weekend.