Brazilian Court Forbids The Sale Of Episodes From Liberty City Worldwide

Kotaku Brazil editor Renato Bueno reports on a Brazilian court order that seeks to remove Rockstar’s Episodes from Liberty City from retail and digital distribution worldwide, due to the unauthorized use of music from an eight-year-old DJ’s dad.

We all remember The Ballad of Gay Tony, don’t we? Explosions, girls, night clubs and… a little demonstration of Brazilian funk in the lines “Vem menina, vem sem medo, que eu vou lhe ensinar” – a song that goes by the name of “Daniel Haaksman – Conga Kid feat. MC Miltinho” in the official soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2eUQO32guA

But the sweet memories stop here. Today, a Civil Court in Barueri (São Paulo) has targeted Rockstar Games and Synergex Brazil, claiming improper use of the song that made you all dance through Liberty City. “Conga Kid” is said to be an unauthorized sample of “Bota o Dedinho pro Alto”, by Brazilian composer Hamilton Lourenço da Silva, father of MC Miltinho (an eight-year-old boy we can see here

The injunction says that Rockstar and Synergex “are restricted from trading and distributing the expansion Episodes From Liberty City”, and that the game must be collected from stores – not only in Brazil, but worldwide. The decision, apparently, also applies to digital versions of the game. There is a fine of R$ 5,000 (US$ 3,000) for each day the Grand Theft Auto expansion pack continues to be sold.

Rockstar has presented documents authorizing the use of the music, but the signatures were not those of the authors of the lawsuit. So we have copyright issues and an international dispute involving the Brazilian composer, Rockstar Games and the German label Man Recordings, responsible for the music included in The Ballad of Tony Gay. Sounds like a job for Sam & Max.

Will the games be removed from stores? Are the digital versions still safe? Are you considering setting fire to your whole GTA collection? What will be the next hit by the little MC Miltinho? While we seek answers to these questions, you’re left with the good old memories… the golden times when our favorite games were banned just because they were “too violent for society”.

Originally published at Kotaku Brazil. Kotaku U.S. has contacted Rockstar for comment on the ruling and will update with any response.

Update: A Rockstar spokesperson responded to our inquiry, telling us that the company has not received any notice from the court about this matter and are looking into the news reports from Brazil.