Judge orders $150,000 in damages in GTA Online cheating case
A federal court has filed a default judgement against Jhonny Perez, the maker of Grand Theft Auto Online cheat program Elusive, in a copyright infringement suit. Southern District of New York Judge Kevin Castel has ordered Perez to pay the statutory maximum of $150,000, plus attorney's fees, after Perez declined to answer the charges in court.
Elusive is one of a number of "mod menus" that let Grand Theft Auto Online players take practically full control of the multiplayer game environment, including granting the ability to generate infinite amounts of in-game currency. That in turn "undermines Take-Two's pricing and sales of legitimate virtual currency," as the ruling obtained by TorrentFreak puts it. The ruling also says Elusive caused "Take-Two to lose control over its carefully balanced plan for how its video game is designed to be played... harm[ing] Take-Two's reputation for maintaining its gaming environment [and] discouraging users from further purchases and gameplay."
Take-Two says it has no way of knowing exactly how much revenue has been lost due to the use of Elusive, but it estimated damages of at least $500,000 in the suit.
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