• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

GTA 6 leaker deemed psychiatrically unfit for trial

Bartski

Gold Member
Per Reuters, 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj, a member of the Lapsus$ hacking group, has been accused by prosecutors of hacking GTA developer Rockstar Games and then threatening to leak the GTA 6 source code. However, Reuters reports that Kurtaj has been assessed by psychiatrists who have deemed him unfit to stand trial for himself. For that reason, the jury will determine whether he truly committed what's being alleged in lieu of delivering a guilty or not guilty verdict.
In total, Kurtaj has been charged with 12 offenses, including three counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud, and six charges under the Computer Misuse Act. Meanwhile, the 17-year-old is on trial for two counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud, and three charges under the Computer Misuse Act relating to the alleged hacking of BT and Nvidia, which he has denied.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
So, essentially ...

split.jpg
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Cut young Kurtaj some slack Rockstar. Sounds like he's experienced enough existential terror for now. A couple of months in jail and an apology should suffice, coupled with the threat of longer jail time post release if he does this or any other crime again. No need to go for the jugular.

You'll still make your billions of profit the day this releases.
 
Last edited:

Drizzlehell

Banned
The fact that big multi-billion dollar companies would go to such lengths to punish an absolute nobody to such a degree is pretty disgusting to be honest. It's like with that guy who is basically owned by Nintendo for the rest of his life because he pirated some of their games. It's ridiculous. There's no way that the damage to their brand was so huge that they would need the guy to pay off millions of dollars in damages so it's basically just a vulgar display of power and people being made an example of. But the punishment is way over the top for the crime that was being committed. He should probably just do some time at best, or pay a reasonable fine for doing something that's illegal, but corporate interests shouldn't be even on the agenda.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Imagine fucking your entire life in the ass and spending the next 20 years pretending to be too retarded to understand crime over GRAND THEFT AUTO 6.
 

Three

Gold Member
But the punishment is way over the top for the crime that was being committed. He should probably just do some time at best, or pay a reasonable fine for doing something that's illegal, but corporate interests shouldn't be even on the agenda.
The guy didn't just pirate, he sold and made a living off it. I agree the punishment was disproportionate though, big companies unfortunately have good lawyers and Joe Public doesn't.
 
Last edited:

Elysium44

Banned
you clearly have no idea how mental ilness works

'Mental health' as practised by the quacks in the profession nowadays is pseudoscience. In fact it always has been. Every aspect of human behaviour is given some arbitrary label, some 'disorder' or 'phobia'. You regularly get two psychiatrists giving completely different diagnoses about the same patient, despite having access to the exact same information.
 
Last edited:

Lunarorbit

Member
It's a fucking kid doing some shit that won't result in anything but hype for the community. People joke about Nintendo, but this is shitty for real

The fact that big multi-billion dollar companies would go to such lengths to punish an absolute nobody to such a degree is pretty disgusting to be honest. It's like with that guy who is basically owned by Nintendo for the rest of his life because he pirated some of their games. It's ridiculous. There's no way that the damage to their brand was so huge that they would need the guy to pay off millions of dollars in damages so it's basically just a vulgar display of power and people being made an example of. But the punishment is way over the top for the crime that was being committed. He should probably just do some time at best, or pay a reasonable fine for doing something that's illegal, but corporate interests shouldn't be even on the agenda.
Yup. If I'm on the jury trial is getting hung. All day not guilty. I don't care if he profited off the sale of rips and made a living. The only thing that trips me up is the blackmail; if it's serious enough it might change my mind.

These video game companies have the same mentality as the war on drugs. Throw the book at individuals and hope it scares everyone away from pirating. Make an example.

For me it works the opposite way. Nintendo sued the shit out of the guy working on a metroid 2 remake and then stole his idea. No shame. Like Drizzlehell Drizzlehell said, the punishment is so over the top it's life crushing for the defendants.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
What he did was stupid. Those are very serious crimes. They shouldn’t get wild ideas like they’re some savior for doing it. They’re screwing up their lives.
 

The Fuzz damn you!

Gold Member
Who wants to take a bet that the same people who deny the existence of mental illness also claim that trans sexuality is a mental illness?

Anyone?

Also, fucking lol at people saying it’s easy to fake mental illness to avoid prison. Which would obviously explain all those empty prisons in the US…
 

Solidus_T

Banned
No doubt a result of the intense pursuit of this kid by Rockstar and the FBI. The way they went after him was nuts, bringing in Uber and other parties.

I'm not justifying making money off of the leaks of course, but there's no way this kid caused enough damage that he needed to spend months behind bars. If anything, someone should have nurtured his skills and directed it towards something beneficial for society. Instead, he's now traumatized.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
Reminds me of George Hotz when Sony made an example out of him. He bragged big about jailbreaking the PS3 but discovered soon why it's not a smart idea trying to extort multi billion dollar corporations just so you could get your 15 minutes of fame.
 

Kabelly

Member
this kid held a ransom against rockstar for their literal child and you think they wouldn't destroy the person behind that? it just so happened to be a 17 year old.

Don't fuck with megacorportations I guess lol. Who woulda thunk.
 

Griffon

Member
Edit: nvm I didn't read about the blackmail. Even so I still hope the kid can rebound and get a life and make an honest living.
 
Last edited:

YCoCg

Member
Speaking of, looks like Take-Two has a new target:


How ironic is that, they take real life brands and make parodies, but if you use reference that parody they threaten to sue!
 

Soodanim

Member
Reminds me of George Hotz when Sony made an example out of him. He bragged big about jailbreaking the PS3 but discovered soon why it's not a smart idea trying to extort multi billion dollar corporations just so you could get your 15 minutes of fame.
I completely forgot about Geohot, what a madlad

 

Moneal

Member
Speaking of, looks like Take-Two has a new target:


How ironic is that, they take real life brands and make parodies, but if you use reference that parody they threaten to sue!

Its not ironic in the slightest. Thats how ip works. They could have parodied the parody and would have been fine. If take two was targeting them for parody then you would have a point here.
 

Trilobit

Member
So.... he was smart enough to have had the required necessary skills to hack in the first place ... but "unfit" to stand trial?
You must like reeeeaaaally hate the concept of Arkham Asylum?

220px-Arkham-Asylum.jpg


this kid held a ransom against rockstar for their literal child and you think they wouldn't destroy the person behind that? it just so happened to be a 17 year old.

Don't fuck with megacorportations I guess lol. Who woulda thunk.

There's a serious dystopian cyberpunk feel behind your comment. I love it!
 
Last edited:
Relax rockstar. Its a damn video game.

You should expect this kind of shit when you start taking 13 years to release a title like that.

And you know damn well you didnt work on it for 13 years.

Wasnt as much of an issue when you released games every 2 years was it?
 

Dynasty8

Member
Relax rockstar. Its a damn video game.

You should expect this kind of shit when you start taking 13 years to release a title like that.

And you know damn well you didnt work on it for 13 years.

Wasnt as much of an issue when you released games every 2 years was it?

It's still blackmail.

Doesn't matter how long it takes to release.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
If they really want to punish the kid, they should sentence him to 100%ing the GTA trilogy on Switch.
 

chlorate

Member
Suing the Cluckin’ Bell people is incredibly stupid, that’s free publicity. Suing the fans is how you get a bad reputation. At most, you should require them to display that they’re not affiliated with Take-Two or Rockstar and that this is a cosplay.
 
Last edited:
The fact that big multi-billion dollar companies would go to such lengths to punish an absolute nobody to such a degree is pretty disgusting to be honest. It's like with that guy who is basically owned by Nintendo for the rest of his life because he pirated some of their games. It's ridiculous. There's no way that the damage to their brand was so huge that they would need the guy to pay off millions of dollars in damages so it's basically just a vulgar display of power and people being made an example of. But the punishment is way over the top for the crime that was being committed. He should probably just do some time at best, or pay a reasonable fine for doing something that's illegal, but corporate interests shouldn't be even on the agenda.
100%
I don't condone illegal activity or crime but why are people here cheering on this shit. Billion dollar companies that continue to rip off and nickle and dime gamers , sell half assed incomplete games and then try and sell you more features as dlc.

Come the fuck on. Fuck these publishers.
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
100%
I don't condone illegal activity or crime but why are people here cheering on this shit. Billion dollar companies that continue to rip off and nickle and dime gamers , sell half assed incomplete games and then try and sell you more features as dlc.

Come the fuck on. Fuck these publishers.
Exactly. Plus they do way worse shit themselves, like dodging taxes through offshore tax havens and stuff. The amount of money that they slip past IRS is almost as incomprehensible as the size of the universe, and they're gonna claim that some random stupid teenager leaking their upcoming game that's gonna sell like hotcakes anyway deserves to have his entire life completely destroyed for this?

giphy.gif
 
Top Bottom