Creator of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red, is hitting Twitter users with the removal of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for sharing links to Gwent source code according to a recent report from Vice.
Several Twitter users reported that their tweets, at least some of which were linked to the source code, were likely to leak in the CD Projekt Red data hack earlier this month, were removed after copyright claims made by the Polish gaming company. “Description of the infringement: source code obtained illegally from Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Posted without authorization, it is not intended to be released to the public, “read one of the DMCA removal notices, a copy of which was obtained and revised by Vice.
The source code for Gwent it is only part of an apparently much larger data breach. On February 9, CD Projekt Red announced that hackers stole data, from the source code to Cyberpunk 2077 financial documents and personal information of employees and retained them for ransom. After refusing to pay, some of the data was sold at auction. At the same time, the source code for Gwent specifically seemed to start circulating online.
CD Projekt Red did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the issue of DMCA removals in an attempt to prevent the spread of hacked information or, in general, about where it is investigating the cause of the breach and who is behind it.
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DMCA removals have been a legal tool for companies looking to control their intellectual property and how it is used. Nintendo is famous for using them to block games from fans and remove soundtracks from YouTube. But they have also become increasingly prevalent on other platforms. Just this weekend, viewers broadcasting BlizzCon Online on Twitch were prevented by DMCA notices from listening to a live Metallica show that was supposed to be part of the event.
Video game companies also use them occasionally to prevent people from tweeting screenshots or videos of your games. A bit before Cyberpunk 2077’s launch, CD Project Red used a DMCA notice to stop someone to share an image of the game’s Tā Moko tattoos as part of a critique of how they were used in the game.