Konami is now taking the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty source code leak to court, hoping to find out who uploaded it after the files appeared online a few months ago. Nobody publicly knows who was behind the leak or how the source code was obtained, and that has kept the speculation going ever since.
There’s still no clear public trail showing where the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty source code actually came from. What is clear is that Konami isn’t happy about any of this. And at this point, it’s decided to escalate.
Legal action to identify the leaker
In its court filing, Konami asked the court to order 4chan, along with Pixeldrain and Buzzheavier, the two file-sharing sites where the files were uploaded, to “preserve and segregate any data that may be useful in identifying the persons responsible for uploading or otherwise disseminating Konami’s content”. The aim is to eventually go after those people in court and stop any further infringement of Konami’s rights.
So far, though, that effort doesn’t seem to have done much. The filing says it was made on June 2, yet none of those sites has provided “information that would allow Konami to identify the culprits who uploaded and infringed Konami’s intellectual property.” Part of the reason is that Konami isn’t actually going after 4chan, Pixeldrain, or Buzzheavier themselves. It’s trying to reach whoever leaked the source code, with the hope that information from one of those three sites will eventually expose that person in court.
Konami’s approach is unusual, but it’s not without precedent. It could work if 4chan, Pixeldrain, or Buzzheavier choose to cooperate, though those sites don’t have much legal or business incentive to do Konami any favors. So while the strategy could, in theory, help Konami get where it wants to go, it doesn’t look especially likely, at least right now, to produce the result Konami was hoping for.
