Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we cover the wrap up to a contentious lawsuit between Take-Two Interactive Software and David Zipperer, a player accused of creating and distributing cheating software for the Grand theft Auto series.
David Zipperer agreed to settle his ongoing litigation with Take-Two this past week, essentially admitting all fault and paying an undisclosed sum of money to Take-Two for his actions. Zipperer worked with a team in the U.S. and Europe to develop and distribute several pieces of software that allowed GTA players to cheat while playing those games, including software known as Menyoo and Absolute.
Take-Two sued Zipperer and claimed that these cheats created unauthorized derivative works of GTA, thereby making them copyright infringement. Take-Two also claimed that Zipperer tortuously interfered with the contracts made between Take-Two and other players, while also breaching the End-User License Agreement himself. We've discussed EULA's before on this segment and how they can be very difficult to enforce, but against egregious conduct like what was alleged here, it's still possible to use that EULA to defend a software developer's rights.
The consent agreement signed by both parties after the settlement was reached states that Zipperer agrees he committed all these acts, including copyright infringement and tortious interference with contract. In exchange for agreeing to an injunction stopping all further development and distribution of cheat software, and the aforementioned undisclosed amount of money, Zipperer gets out of this expensive and contentious lawsuit before it goes to full trial. So in this case, Take-Two won, but only after considerable cost and effort in court to get to this consent agreement.
One factor that probably helped lead these parties to settle was how hostile the judge had become in recent months over the conduct of both sides' attorneys. The judge was openly critical of Take-Two asking overbroad questions in discovery and delaying the process to get to trial, alleging that Take-Two was trying to bury the defendant under an unreasonable amount of pretrial filings and discovery requests. The judge also accused Zipperer's attorney of not dealing with some of Take-Two's discovery inquiries in good faith, calling this attorney the greater sinner in this case.
So at the end of the day, Zipperer and his legal team must have figured the potential loss was going to be worse at trial than whatever the agreement turned out to be, plus everyone including the irate judge gets to move on from this case.
The Bottom Line is, companies like Take-Two with wildly successful game lines like Grand Theft Auto have the resources needed to actually enforce EULA's against bad actors like David Zipperer. Go figure, the maker of a game encouraging digital fantasy crime is the one to stop a developer of cheating software.
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