An Australian man who's accused of developing the "Infamous" cheat for GTA V had some of his personal belongings returned this week. The items were seized following a complaint from Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive Software. The case remains ongoing and the defendant was told that he has to present a defense on or before February 1st, 2019.
Over the past year there has been a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits against alleged cheaters or cheat makers.
Two of the driving forces behind these cases are GTA V developer Rockstar Games and its parent company Take-Two Interactive.
In Australia, the companies filed a lawsuit in September, targeting several people believed to be linked to the popular “Infamous” cheat.
This lawsuit is notable because the Federal Court of Australia signed off on several broad enforcement actions. Not only were the defendants restrained from any cheating related activity, they were also the subject of a search and assets freezing order.
With the orders in hand, a search party was permitted enter several buildings and search, copy, or remove relevant evidence including any computers and documents related to “Infamous.” In addition, the freezing order prevented defendants from taking out more money than needed for regular expenses.
According to court documents, several devices and hardware belonging to defendant Christopher Anderson were indeed taken. While the case remains active, this week the court decided to return some of the seized items.
The list of returned items includes several laptops, an iPad and an iPhone, as seen below. In addition, the court also listed the assets freezing order. This will help the defendant to prepare his defense.
The order was issued after both parties appeared before the Australian Federal Court this week to discuss progress in the case. Anderson appeared via phone and chose to represent himself.
The defendant told the court that he is working on a defense but that this had been a challenge without access to funds and an unspecified “confidential” document, ZDNet reports.
According to Justice Nicholas, who has seen the document in question, the lack of access should not prohibit Anderson from preparing a defense.
This was also made clear in the order. After an earlier extension, the alleged cheat developer is now required to submit his reply on or before February 1st, 2019.
During the hearing, it also became clear that PayPal has frozen Anderson’s funds for 180 days. This money remains locked for now, which may continue until March.
Counsel for Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive contacted PayPal about the issue but it appears that there’s not much they can do about it.
“It is between him and PayPal and they do not appear to be the easiest depositors to have one’s money,” the Counsel said. “They have their own terms and conditions, and they do their own thing.”
March will be too late for the defendant. He has little more than a month to file a response, which means that he likely has to rely on other resources.
Finally, it’s worth noting that earlier court documents mentioned several possible defendants, referring to the “person or persons” known as Christopher Anderson, Cycus Lesser, Sfinktah, Koroush Anderson, and Koroush Jeddian. The latest court records only mention Christopher Anderson.
