Original GTA developer hit with copyright strikes against prototype videos

A developer from the original Grand Theft Auto game has reportedly had prototype videos hit with a copyright strike from Rockstar Games.

Mike Dailly, one of the founders of DMA Design (now Rockstar North), has tweeted he's removed any GTA videos due to the strikes.

"I see Rockstar are going full fuckers mode again, issuing copyright strikes to any GTA video they can find - including both my prototype videos. So now they're trying to block all release of anyone's work on a game - and any old development footage," he tweeted yesterday.

He followed up: "For those asking - yes, I've now removed all GTA dev stuff. Only direct examples of my own work are left - work that was never used in GTA, but 'inspired' parts of its evolution. You can thank Rocksuck."

The removed videos showed off early footage of the game from the mid 90s. At this point DMA Design was best known for its work on the Lemmings franchise.

Grand Theft Auto copyright strikes have been prevalent in the last year.

Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive issued strikes against modders last summer.

Further trademark claims were made at the end of the year against a number of companies, including Hazelight, the developer of Josef Fares' It Takes Two.

However, this is the first instance of a copyright strike against one of the game's own developers.

Our own Bertie recently interviewed Gary Penn, who was creative director at DMA Design and supervised the release of Grand Theft Auto.