A Brazilian court prohibited worldwide sales of the expansion for Grand Theft Auto IV because it infringes on the copyrights of an 8 year old boy.
Remember when Rockstar games were threatened to be banned because of violence or sexual content like the infamous Hot Coffee mod? It seems that such days are long gone, and Rockstar is facing even stingier legal action that has nothing to do with racy content. A song on the Ballad of Gay Tony soundtrack called “Conga Kid” by Daniel Haaksman featuring MC Miltinho was found by a Brazilian court to use an unauthorized sample of “Bota o Dedinho pro Alto” by Brazilian composer Hamilton Lourenço da Silva. Lourenço da Silva is the father of the 8 year old kid singing on the song, also known as MC Miltinho, who can be seen in this video:
You can see and listen to “Conga Kid” in-game in this video. Ignore the annoying phone calls…
Even though Rockstar produced documents claiming that it had the correction permissions to use the track, the Brazilian court found that the signatures were not the author’s. The court prohibited all digital and retail sales of Episodes from Liberty City or The Ballad of Gay Tony and that Rockstar and its distirbutor in Brazil, Synergex, must remove all copies from stores. The court levied a fine of 5,000 Brazilian Reals or US $3,000 for each day that the game is still sold. Because of international copyright law, this judgement effects sales worldwide and not just in Brazil. If you’ve been waiting to play Gay Tony, you might want to get on that.
Who’d have thought that any content from Rockstar would be banned for a simple matter like copyright infringement? What is this world coming to? I’m nostalgic for the halcyon days of Jack Thompson and Bully murder simulators.
Source: Kotaku
