Take-Two’s response to the recent GTA VI leaks has moved beyond takedown notices into a widening effort to identify the people behind online accounts. Take-Two’s DMCA subpoena effort now spans Microsoft, Discord, X and Google’s YouTube, with some requests seeking IP addresses, device identifiers, linked accounts, message records and cloud data. Microsoft subpoena filing Discord subpoena filing GTA BOOM TecMundo
Take-Two is no longer just trying to make leaked GTA VI material disappear.
On 20 August, Rockstar Games’ parent company applied in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for DMCA subpoenas directed at Microsoft and Discord. The subpoenas were authorised on 21 August, according to court records reviewed by AFP. Both seek information intended to help identify an alleged infringer or infringers. AFP Microsoft docket Discord docket
And the investigation has already widened.
Fresh reporting on 23 August says Take-Two has filed further DMCA subpoena requests aimed at X and Google, with the Google request concerning material posted to YouTube. Those newer requests focus more directly on particular online personas and posts, while the earlier Microsoft and Discord filings reveal just how broad the underlying information hunt can become. GTA BOOM TecMundo
The requests reach into IP addresses, registration details, linked services, device identifiers, messages and, in Microsoft’s case, relevant OneDrive material. Tom’s Hardware
It does not make everyone whose information could fall within those requests a GTA VI leaker.
What Take-Two actually filed
The Microsoft and Discord proceedings are both titled In re Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Microsoft docket Discord docket
The Microsoft matter is 1:26-mc-00421 and the Discord matter is 1:26-mc-00422. Public federal docket records list both in the Southern District of New York, with the applications submitted on 20 August and docketed on 21 August. Microsoft docket Discord docket
Take-Two describes the copyrighted GTA VI material at issue as including audiovisual content, artwork, images, dialogue and other creative elements. It submitted the declaration required under the DMCA stating that the information is being sought to identify an alleged infringer or infringers and will be used to protect its copyright rights. Microsoft subpoena filing Discord subpoena filing
That distinction matters.
These are identity-seeking legal requests. They are not court findings that every account, server member or person whose records may be returned infringed Take-Two’s copyright.
Microsoft is being asked for far more than a name
The Microsoft request begins partly with GitHub.
Take-Two’s filing points to GTA VI material associated with Microsoft’s GitHub platform and asks for internal Microsoft business and investigative records concerning the “Cyberleek” persona where those records could help identify the user, person or entity behind it. Microsoft subpoena filing
But the request goes considerably further.
Reporting based on the filing shows Take-Two seeking account IDs, registration emails, registration and recent-login IP addresses, phone numbers, linked services including Google and Xbox, and device identifiers described as MachineGuid and MSA values. It also seeks relevant device or telemetry records and GTA, Rockstar or Cyberleek-related content in associated OneDrive accounts. Tom’s Hardware
That makes the Microsoft subpoena much more than a request to reveal who owns a GitHub account.
Take-Two is trying to connect online identities with account registrations, network addresses, other services, devices and potentially relevant cloud files.
Microsoft’s involvement should not be read as evidence that the leak originated from Xbox simply because GTA VI is coming to the platform. The filing seeks information Microsoft may hold across services including GitHub, Microsoft accounts and OneDrive. Microsoft subpoena filing
The Discord request reaches beyond the named handles
Discord is being asked for another substantial set of records.
The filings identify handles including CYBERLEEK, CINEMATICROCKSTAR and Surfer24k, with cyberleek_west and surwest also appearing as replacement handles. Three Discord communities are also listed: Ødyssey.gg, ! Odyssey, and a server the filing describes as DarkViperAU’s editors’ server. Discord subpoena filing
For accounts within the scope of the request, Take-Two seeks identifying and activity information including account details, emails, phone numbers, IP-access records, connected accounts, message records, backend metadata or telemetry and device identifiers. Discord subpoena filing Discord data-request scope
The request does not stop with the named handles.
It extends to identifying information associated with accounts that were members of, or communicating in, the listed Discord communities and channels from 1 June 2026 onwards. Discord subpoena filing Discord data-request scope
That breadth is exactly why the wording around these proceedings matters.
An account can fall within a records request because it was present in a community Take-Two wants to examine. That is not the same as Take-Two proving that the person behind it obtained or leaked GTA VI material.
The hunt has now reached X and YouTube too
Microsoft and Discord are no longer the full current scope.
Reporting published on 23 August says Take-Two has made two additional DMCA subpoena requests, one aimed at X and another at Google over content posted to YouTube. GTA BOOM TecMundo
The reported Google request concerns a specific YouTube video associated in the filing with the online personas CyberLeeks, Surfer24k and CyberLeek_ar_io. Take-Two is seeking information that could identify who was behind the relevant accounts. TecMundo
The reported X request is more focused. It seeks identifying information connected with @cyberleek_ar_io and refers to three posts containing material Take-Two alleges infringes its GTA VI copyrights. GTA BOOM
There is an extra complication here.
Some accounts using Cyberleek branding have previously been questioned or described as possible impostors rather than confirmed accounts belonging to whoever originally obtained the GTA VI material. That makes inclusion in one of these requests even less useful as shorthand for guilt. GTA BOOM
The important update is simpler: Take-Two is now following potential identity trails across Microsoft, Discord, X and Google rather than Microsoft and Discord alone.
Why is a DarkViperAU server even in this?
The Microsoft and Discord filings also offer a useful clue about how some of these names entered the investigation.
A report that directly reviewed the court documents says the attachments identify the source of the listed Discord accounts as an open-source video. In other words, publicly available footage exposed account and server information that Take-Two then followed into its subpoena requests. Yahoo Tech
One of the listed servers is described in the filing as belonging to the editors of GTA creator Matthew “DarkViperAU” Judge. Discord subpoena filing
Judge has denied involvement. He said he knows nothing about the leaks, disputed the description of the server as his editors’ Discord and said his servers did not contain the leaked clips. Yahoo Tech
That is a useful example of the difference between an investigative lead and a finding.
A server appearing in a subpoena does not establish that its owner or every person inside it participated in copyright infringement.
It means Take-Two believes records associated with that online environment may help it identify the alleged infringer or infringers.
What a DMCA subpoena actually establishes
Section 512(h) of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act allows a copyright owner, or someone authorised to act for it, to ask a federal court clerk to issue a subpoena to a service provider for information sufficient to identify an alleged infringer. 17 U.S.C. §512(h)
The request has to include an infringement notification, a proposed subpoena and a sworn declaration stating that the purpose is to obtain the alleged infringer’s identity and use the information to protect copyright rights. If those statutory requirements are satisfied, the law directs the clerk to issue the subpoena. 17 U.S.C. §512(h)
That is what these proceedings are designed to do: obtain identifying information.
Issuing a section 512(h) subpoena is not itself a finding that the targeted person committed copyright infringement. Nor does it establish liability against every account or community whose data is swept into a request.
Those are separate questions.
A deadline is not proof the platforms have handed everything over
The Microsoft and Discord subpoenas give the companies until 4 September 2026 to produce the requested information. The Verge
Discord has said it reviews and complies with valid DMCA subpoenas when it receives them. The Verge
Microsoft has also publicly acknowledged working with Take-Two and Rockstar. Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet said the company is working with them to support efforts to protect creative works and intellectual property. Pure Xbox
Neither statement should be stretched further than it goes.
Microsoft’s public support does not confirm that it has already supplied every category of information Take-Two requested. A response deadline does not mean the material is already in Take-Two’s possession, either.
The same caution applies to the newly reported X and Google requests.
What the filings tell us is what Take-Two wants to obtain.
What each platform ultimately produces is a different question.
This is where the GTA VI leak story becomes an identity investigation
Most of a game leak plays out where everyone can see it.
Footage appears. People repost it. Copyright notices follow. Copies disappear and others take their place.
Take-Two’s current legal strategy goes beneath that surface.
Across Microsoft, Discord, X and Google’s YouTube, it is trying to turn usernames and online activity into information capable of identifying real people.
The Microsoft and Discord requests show how far that can extend: IP histories, phone numbers, linked accounts, device identifiers, messages, telemetry and cloud material. Microsoft subpoena filing Discord subpoena filing
The newer X and YouTube requests show the next part of the strategy: following specific accounts and posts across the services where leaked material or associated personas appeared. GTA BOOM TecMundo
That is a significant escalation from simply removing footage.
But it still requires careful language.
These filings contain copyright allegations and investigative requests. They identify accounts, communities and records that Take-Two believes could help locate an alleged infringer or infringers.
They do not turn everybody caught inside those requests into one.
The interesting part of Take-Two’s GTA VI leak hunt is no longer what the leaked footage supposedly showed.
It is how many digital trails the company is now trying to follow to find out where it came from.