Last week, we reported on a gamer facing nearly $50,000 in fines for creating a map of Montreal's Berri-UQAM metro station that officials say poses a security risk. Now Diego Liatis tells Ars Technica that he's going to follow through on releasing the map in March, lawsuit or not.
Liatis spent nine months creating the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map, hoping to make it in time for a Montreal gaming party called LAN ETS 2013. He first asked Montreal's transit authority for permission to create the map, was denied, and went ahead building it anyway.
Transit officials have said re-creating the station could pose security risks for travelers: a terrorist, they argue, could use the map to plot an attack. But the officials are threatening a lawsuit not on safety grounds, but trademark grounds: parts of the train station, including the Société de transport de Montréal name and seal, can't be reproduced, they say. Liatis told Ars Technica it's his right to digitally recreate it just as it's anyone's right to photograph it.
Liatis will be meeting with officials later this week and has said he's willing to take down the transit authority's logo and a recognizable piece of art in the level. Past that, he won't budge. The station's name and logo will stay as is, he says. Even more defiantly, he wants to make more maps for other games based on real Canadian locations.
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