GTA modder facing prison?

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 21st April 2008
Comments (30) Stumble
Grand Theft Auto modder Stacy O'Callaghan is facing legal troubles for his mods.

Grand Theft Auto modder Stacy O'Callaghan is facing legal troubles for his mods.

It's that time of year again when Grand Theft Auto shifts back into the public eye and controversial stories start coming out of the wood-work again. This time round it's the story of New Zealand modder Stacy O'Callaghan, who has wound up in trouble with the law for a GTA mod.

Stacy, who was apparently sick of "all that American rubbish" in the GTA games, set to modding his PC version of the title according to Stuff.co.nz. The first thing he modded? Taking out the American cop insignias and dropping New Zealand ones in as a replacement.

Yeah, maybe not the best thing to yell from the rooftops that you'd rather shoot police from your own country, but nobody told Stacy that.

Unfortunately for Stacy, New Zealand police have taken offense to his mod and, in an effort to discourage such behaviour in the future, are attempting to prosecute Stacy for "unauthorised use of a police uniform", which is an offence under New Zealand's Police Act.

At the moment the case has reached a bit of a stalemate as the New Zealand police force is unsure if it can even prosecute under that law, but the police is still looking at its options.

Has the world gone mad? Let us know what you think in the forums.
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Quote Gunsmith 21st April 2008, 16:06
yes, the world has gone mad.
Quote mmorgue 21st April 2008, 16:29
Let me guess what's next....

AlliedConcrete and New Zealand Steel sue him for unauthorised use of their material depictions in commercial buildings, residential homes...
Coca-Cola, Pepsi and others sue him for unauthorised use of the depictions of fizzy drink cans in the same shape as theirs...
Your average citizen decides to sue him for unauthorised use of their 'kinda-sorta' likeness when used as random NPC characters walking the streets...

Christ, what the hell is this world coming to...?
Quote Joeymac 21st April 2008, 17:02
Mad? I think the world has gone bat **** crazy.
Quote kenco_uk 21st April 2008, 17:18
With all the blood rushing to their heads, it's no wonder this has happened.
Quote Jordan Wise 21st April 2008, 17:30
thats what happens when theres more sheep than people
Quote sotu1 21st April 2008, 17:54
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joeymac
Mad? I think the world has gone bat **** crazy.

+1.
Quote specofdust 21st April 2008, 17:57
Well look on the brightside, if they come to arrest him he'll have plenty of practise at dealing with the New Zealand police force, eh?
Quote Veles 21st April 2008, 18:50
That's a pretty bad interpretation of the law and if it goes to court I hope they get their asses handed to them.
Quote completemadness 21st April 2008, 19:22
yet again, something that would have gone largely unnoticed is being forced into the public eye (cough hot coffee cough)

Something that may have had hundreds of views/downloads/interests will now have many times that
Quote Kierax 21st April 2008, 19:24
This is just daft why dont they go about sorting the corrupt governments and organizations rather then stupid nit picking on people who are doing nothing to no-one.
Quote LeMaltor 21st April 2008, 19:53
Just a week or two away from the release of GTA 4 :D
Quote Arkanrais 21st April 2008, 20:54
dammit, I thought this country was resistant to this kind of idiocy.
still, I would say they don't have a legal leg to stand on seeing as how the guys isn't impersonating a police officer or doing any actual harm to the police force (not like when a friend of mine threw a pie at some police who kept following him, then got mace'd [pepper sprayed] for it)

edit; bring on the Streisand effect
Quote johnmustrule 21st April 2008, 21:07
Yay! the rest of the world's following Americas frivolous lawsuit trend! Get on the bandwagon ppl!
Quote ZERO <ibis> 21st April 2008, 22:31
The blood in that game looks like mine. I have rights to my blood how dare they use it without paying me a billion dollars! :(
Quote docodine 21st April 2008, 22:34
Quote:
Originally Posted by Veles
That's a pretty bad interpretation of the law and if it goes to court I hope they get their asses handed to them.

[Case is presented to Judge]
Judge: ...
NZ Police: So he's guilty, right?
Judge: Who the f*ck cares about a video game.
[NZ Police leave crying]
Quote The_Beast 21st April 2008, 22:37
^^^ I hope that is how it happens ^^^
Quote Constructacon 21st April 2008, 22:45
Quote:
Originally Posted by docodine
Quote:
Originally Posted by Veles
That's a pretty bad interpretation of the law and if it goes to court I hope they get their asses handed to them.

[Case is presented to Judge]
Judge: ...
NZ Police: So he's guilty, right?
Judge: Who the f*ck cares about a video game.
[NZ Police leave crying]
Thank you so much. You made my day.

I always thought that law was about impersonating a police officer. Does this mean you can't draw a picture of a cop now? Ridiculous.
Quote Cptn-Inafinus 21st April 2008, 22:55
A word of warning.

Watch the skies!
Quote LordPyrinc 21st April 2008, 23:29
Likely, the only outcome of this prosecution attempt will be added publicity for the modder. That will in turn lead to more people downloading and using his mods. Hence, the New Zealand police are actually contributing to the spread of what they consider a problem.
Quote DXR_13KE 21st April 2008, 23:43
this comes from WTFLAND, were anything is possible!
Quote speedfreek 22nd April 2008, 00:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by specofdust
Well look on the brightside, if they come to arrest him he'll have plenty of practise at dealing with the New Zealand police force, eh?

That would be blamed on the game as well.
Quote Woodstock 22nd April 2008, 02:08
ffs the nz cops are useless, first the geocaching then this yet no actual police work gets done
Quote PhenomRed 22nd April 2008, 04:01
This is really gonna make the world think better of us. People, this country isn't full of hobbits and orcs, there's idiotic cops too...
Quote r0z|3o0n 22nd April 2008, 08:24
Heh, I went to school with this guy...

It's pretty rediculous that they're even contemplating prosecution but at the same time some cops probably find it reasonably offensive...

That said, any non-idiotic judge will just laugh it out of court. If it does go to trial I'll seriously consider going down to see the outcome...
Quote donnie 22nd April 2008, 11:53
Quote:
Originally Posted by docodine
Quote:
Originally Posted by Veles
That's a pretty bad interpretation of the law and if it goes to court I hope they get their asses handed to them.

[Case is presented to Judge]
Judge: ...
NZ Police: So he's guilty, right?
Judge: Who the f*ck cares about a video game.
[NZ Police leave crying]

Impersonation of both the new zealand police and a new zealand judge wow you're in troble now mate
Quote 1ad7 22nd April 2008, 15:51
This is absolutely insane.... wow i cant think of words to describe the idiocy occurring here
Quote pendragon 22nd April 2008, 18:16
wow.. what a waste of time
Quote dr-strangelove 22nd April 2008, 23:53
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnmustrule
Yay! the rest of the world's following Americas frivolous lawsuit trend! Get on the bandwagon ppl!

If you can't beat 'em, sue 'em
Quote DannyDirect 23rd April 2008, 15:01
HaHa pathetic, just leave people to play their games.
Quote icutebluezone 25th April 2008, 02:15
LOL what a crackup. So am I going to go on trial to for modding cars and having the hot coffee mod LOL What a waste of police time and money Leave us gamers to are games man what till the new GTA comes out there is going to be lots of people blaming things on the game. GAME ON AND DONT FORGET GTA RULES RUN SUM MORE PEOPLE OVER. :)
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