Take-Two Interactive has filed two DMCA subpoenas in the Southern District of New York, demanding that Microsoft and Discord hand over records that could identify whoever is behind the “CyberLeek” persona responsible for this week’s wave of Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay leaks. The GTA 6 leaker subpoenas were filed on 20 August by attorneys Dale Cendali and Joshua Simmons, and both companies have until 4 September to produce what is being asked of them.
Individual takedown notices only get a clip removed, not a name attached to it, which is why Take-Two had spent the preceding days filing removal requests against freshly uploaded footage while the leaks kept spreading, with little effect on the source. A subpoena works differently: it compels the platforms holding account data to hand over information that can be cross-referenced back to a real person, which is why both filings name CyberLeek specifically rather than asking for footage to be pulled again.
What the GTA 6 leaker subpoenas demand
Take-Two isn’t only after a username. The Microsoft subpoena asks for MachineGuid and MSA device identifiers, registration and last-login IP addresses, phone numbers, linked Google and Xbox accounts, and OneDrive contents, covering every account that posted in three named Discord servers since 1 June, as Tom’s Hardware reported after reviewing the filing. A MachineGuid is tied to a specific Windows install rather than to any one account, so cross-referencing it against login IPs and linked Xbox or Google logins is a way to connect several screen names back to one physical machine, even if the leaker spread the footage across servers under different aliases.
The filings describe the copyrighted material at stake as “audiovisual content, artwork, images, dialogue, or other creative elements”, and state that Take-Two has submitted a sworn declaration confirming the purpose of the request is “to obtain the identity of an alleged infringer or infringers.” Discord’s subpoena is narrower than Microsoft’s: it asks for account IDs, registration emails and other identifying details tied specifically to the CyberLeek accounts, rather than everyone who passed through the three servers.
The filings, read directly
teqpost reviewed both documents as lodged with the court rather than relying on secondhand summaries: the Discord subpoena and the Microsoft subpoena. Both are DMCA 512(h) filings, a mechanism that lets a copyright holder compel a service provider to identify an alleged infringer on the strength of a sworn declaration, without first filing and serving a lawsuit against that person. Neither Microsoft nor Discord is being sued here; they are the record-holders being compelled to produce data about their own users.
What to watch
Microsoft and Discord have until 4 September to comply, though a deadline on a DMCA subpoena isn’t the same as a name landing in Take-Two’s hands that day: both companies can object to scope, and often do, before handing anything over. Grand Theft Auto 6 is still on course for a November release, and this is the clearest sign yet that Take-Two intends to pursue the leaker through the courts rather than simply wait for the story to fade before launch.
