Tag: Grand Theft Auto

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Take-Two wins dispute for GTAtv.com domain name, GTA.tv case still pending

Take-Two wins dispute for GTAtv.com, GTA.tv case still pending

Video game company Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. won a domain name dispute (Case No. D2013-1434) for grandtheftautovideos.com, gtaextreme.com, gtarevolution.com and gtatv.com.

The decision comes shortly after Rockstar ruled out the possibility for a GTA 5 movie, but hinted at a TV show for the Grand Theft Auto series.

While a GTA TV show is all just rumor and speculation at this point, Take-Two has been filing complaints at related domains.  In August 2013, Take-Two filed a dispute (Case No. DTV2013-0004) against the owner of the domain GTA.tv (WHOIS), however, a decision has yet to be issued.

A panelist with the World Intellectual Property Organization ordered gtatv.com and the other names transferred after finding the names were confusingly similar to Take-Two’s GTA trademarks, that the current owner had no rights or legitimate interests in any of the names, and that the names were registered in bad faith. The names had been listed for sale for prices ranging from $350 for grandtheftautovideos.com to $15,000 for gtatv.com.

All four names: grandtheftautovideos.com (WHOIS), gtaextreme.com (WHOIS), gtarevolution.com (WHOIS) and gtatv.com (WHOIS), are still registered to Domain Asset Holdings, which is operated by domain name pioneer Mike Mann.  Mann made headlines in 2012 after registering 14,962 domains in 24 hours.

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Disputes Featured News Video Games WIPO

Take-Two continues legal fight over Grand Theft Auto V beta domain names

Grand Theft Auto V

Take-Two Interactive has been plagued with scammers who register domain names, and then set up websites that falsely claim to offer beta codes to Grand Theft Auto V, which will release on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC later this year.

The legal team at Take-Two has been busy the past few months, filing several complaints with the Word Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over names like betagtav.com and gta5betacode.com.  In the last few days, five more cases involving GTA V have popped up on the website over at WIPO bringing the total case count to 12.

The latest round of disputes involves the following names.

gtavbetacodes.com (WHOIS / Case)
gta5betacodes.com (WHOIS / Case)
gta5-beta.com (WHOIS / Case)
gta5freedownload.com (WHOIS / Case)
gta5download.org (WHOIS / Case)

While some of the domains don’t resolve to a website or are parked, others are full-fledged websites with the intent to deceive users.

Here’s a screenshot of gtavbetacodes.com, which tries to get unsuspecting users to download a file to their computer.

GTA V Beta Download scam website

To date, Take-Two has won disputes over getgtavbeta.com, betagtav.com, gtavbeta.org and gtaavbeta.net.

Talking about this story: Examiner.com

(Image of Grand Theft Auto V via RockstarGames.com)

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Disputes Featured News WIPO

Take-Two going after more Grand Theft Auto V beta scammers, additional complaints filed

Grand Theft Auto V Beta

In February, Take-Two Interactive won a dispute over the domain getgtavbeta.com, which was followed by a win over betagtav.com, a phony website that claimed to have beta keys to the game.  Now, Take-Two has a total of four open cases over Grand Theft Auto V related domains.

This week, complaints were filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over gta5betacode.com (Case Number: D2013-0490) and grandtheftauto5beta.com (Case Number: D2013-0489).

While grandtheftauto5beta.com does not resolve to a web page at the moment, gta5betacode.com (screenshot above) is a full-fledged website, complete with a Facebook page that has over 1,000 likes and a YouTube account.

How does the scam work?

People who visit the website are first instructed to help unwittingly spread the scam through Facebook.  If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can see the steps.

GTA V Beta scam

If you click the “Get Your Key!” button, you’re taken to another page that has you pick a console.

After you select a console, the final page is shown that tries tricking you into downloading a file to your computer.

If you don’t think people still fall for these absurd and obvious scams, take a look at the website’s related Facebook page.  At the time of this story, it has over 1,300 likes.

GTA 5 Beta Facebook page

This case will be another slam-dunk for Take-Two.

Gta5betacode.com is owned by a resident of Pennsylvania, who first registered the domain in January 2013.

Talking about this story: VG247, playNATION.de, Eurogamer.net, Digital Trends, Attack of the Fanboy, Explosion, Menly, Product Reviews, In Entertainment, MCV, GameSpot, PSX Extreme, MegaGames, GamePro, Xbox Way, games.reveur.de, PIXEL ENEMY and Examiner.com

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Disputes News Video Games WIPO

Take-Two wins another dispute over a Grand Theft Auto V beta domain, 3 more to go

Grand Theft Auto V Beta

Take-Two Interactive has won a dispute over the domain betagtav.com, a name that was registered back in 2011 shortly after Grand Theft Auto V’s official announcement.  The game is set to be released in September 2013.

Last year, the domain owner launched a website on betagtav.com that claimed to have beta keys to the game.  Of course, the website was a fake.  But it wasn’t the only site on the internet issuing fake beta keys.  There were and are others.

At the beginning of 2013, Take-Two filed five separate complaints with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over ‘GTA V Beta’ domains.

In February, it won a dispute over getgtavbeta.com, but there are still 3 more cases that are active and undecided.  The cases involve gtavbeta.net, gtavbeta.org, and  gta5downloadsecure.com.

You can see a screenshot below of betagtav.com from 2012.  The web address currently redirects users to Rockstar Games’ official website.

Grand Theft Auto V Beta

Expect to see more complaints filed over beta domains in 2013 as scammers continue to prey on unsuspecting fans of popular video games.

Last year, Microsoft took control of the domain names Halo4Beta.biz and Halo4Beta.net, after filing similar complaints.

Talking about this story: Examiner.com