A mod in GTA Online caused players to throw money around. Now the developer of the mod has to pay Take-Two €88,000.
Who is it about? Christopher Anderson is the developer of the so-called “Infamous” mod. With it, players in GTA Online on the PC could do a lot of nonsense – Rockstar Games and Take-Two were forced to step in, which is why Infamous has been unavailable since 2018.
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How did the developer make money rain? GTA Online’s Infamous Mod was the reason why many games experienced a money rain of sorts. A user of this mod could give himself a sack full of money by pressing a button in the mod menu or set up a loop that permanently gives you a sack of money as long as this loop is activated.
There was also the possibility to give money to all players in the lobby. While this may sound like Santa Claus is out and about in Los Santos, it was a problem for the financial balance of the game.
However, the possibilities of the mod did not stop at giving away money. So players could use it to teleport, turn invisible, fly, or shoot around with unlimited ammo. And who doesn’t love being attacked by an invisible John Rambo while trying to complete their sell missions?
Why does Anderson have to pay €88,000? Take-Two and Rockstar Games took legal action against Christopher Anderson and the Infamous Mod in 2018.
In August 2021, the Federal Court of Australia found that Anderson had violated the copyright of GTA V by distributing the mod. He is also said to have caused the users of the mod to violate the license agreement and the GTA Terms of Service (via judgments.fedcourt.gov.au).
Building on that, the court ordered Anderson to list and pay to Take-Two the profits made from the mod and the interest accrued on them. According to a court document dated November 4, 2022, the parties have agreed to a sum of 140,000 Australian dollars (about €88,400) (via comcourts.gov.au).
Likewise, Anderson must render the Infamous mod inoperable and delete all copies including the source code.
Publisher suddenly has mods for GTA deleted that weren’t a problem for 10 years