GTA 5 Mod Tool Program Shuts Down After Legal Letter, Rockstar Responds

[UPDATE] Rockstar Games confirmed in a statement to GameSpot today that its parent company, Take-Two, did send a letter to the mod group. The statement explains why it took action against the OpenIV tools, saying they can create a nasty environment for some players "interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody."

"Take-Two's actions were not specifically targeting single player mods. Unfortunately OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody," Rockstar said. "We are working to figure out how we can continue to support the creative community without negatively impacting our players."

The original story follows below.

A popular Grand Theft Auto modding tool program has shut down after the group behind it claimed it received a cease and desist order from Take-Two Interactive.

The OpenIV group said in a message today (via PCGamer), "We feared that this day would come… And now it's here. The day, when GTA modding was declared illegal."

The organization said it complied with pertinent rules related to modding GTA content, including not "messing with online [play]" and only using "clean-room reverse engineering," among other things.

On June 5, OpenIV said it received a cease and desist order letter from Take-Two, the parent company of GTA V developer Rockstar Games. The letter reportedly that the modding tool "allow[s] third-parties to defeat security features of its software and modify that software in violation Take-Two's rights."

OpenIV said they could go to court to demonstrate that modding is within the coverage of fair use, but the organization decided not to.

"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," it said. "Spending time just to restore status quo is really unproductive, and all the money in the world can't compensate the loss of time."

With that in mind, OpenIV said it decided to comply with the letter and stop distributing the mod tools. "It was a hard decision, but when any modding activity has been declared illegal, we can't see any possibilities to continue this process," it said. "Unless top management of Take-Two company makes an official statement about modding, which can be used in court."

You can read the full statement here. We've contacted Take-Two in an attempt to get more details, and we'll update this post with anything we hear back.

In other GTA V news, GTA Online's newest update, Gunrunning, launched this week on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. GTA V has shipped an astonishing 80 million copies.