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Should stealing virtual goods be illegal?

i believe it is illegal however distributing these virtual items is in many cases illegal as is. i view stealing as stealing but in online game situations you are essentially stealing from the owner of the game i guess.
 
It should be illegal. But how would it in the case for example RSGP when it involves another illegal activity such as selling gp
 
Ofc it should be illegal. Stealing what is not yours should always be illegal. But isn't already illegal?
 
This is dependent on who owns the product. A lot of online companies stipulate that all items within the game are actually THEIRS (RuneScape, WoW), thus making them against the rules to sell or buy. So for example, if you own a red partyhat in RuneScape, it's actually Jagex's property, and they are simply providing you a service by letting you use the account.

Using the logic, I could steal said partyhat from you and legally, you couldn't press charges as it was the property of Jagex, rather than you. Jagex could, turn around and press charges, but I can't see it being worth it.

Habbo Hotel on the other hand stipulates that the items are owned by the buyer, as they are most often than not, directly bought from the company. In this case, Sulake have worked with authorities to punish those who steal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7094764.stm
 
I take it as unskilled intellectual property being stolen. Yeah it's stealing but it's not worth anything to society, you can't re-invest it in to the economy. It's only used by a person in a video game to accomplish task and acquire other virtual items developed by programers. So it's a pretty selfish asset with no use and no real value because it is not able to initiate anything for the good of society.
 
Do you mean like Runescape items? ETC? If so then no, I don't think that they should be because its not "REAL" Its only PIXELS, and honestly if you think that its more then that maybe you should have them stolen, so you realize that there is a reason its called "Virtual Items.."

And then again, STEALING IS STEALING, So it should not be punishable by law. However there ARE consiquences for this.. Such as on sites, you get banned, on games, you get banned.

Also I'm curious. Is Luring stealing "Virtual Items" also?
 
The way you put it with all that time invested yes, but I don't think government should invest resources into tracking down people stealing video game accounts, that should be up to the maker of the game having better account protection.
 
Heidy
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Acidcantdie said:
This is dependent on who owns the product. A lot of online companies stipulate that all items within the game are actually THEIRS (RuneScape, WoW), thus making them against the rules to sell or buy. So for example, if you own a red partyhat in RuneScape, it's actually Jagex's property, and they are simply providing you a service by letting you use the account.

Using the logic, I could steal said partyhat from you and legally, you couldn't press charges as it was the property of Jagex, rather than you. Jagex could, turn around and press charges, but I can't see it being worth it.

Habbo Hotel on the other hand stipulates that the items are owned by the buyer, as they are most often than not, directly bought from the company. In this case, Sulake have worked with authorities to punish those who steal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7094764.stm
Click to expand...


This is what I have been trying to explain the entire time, but few people seem to get it. It would be a waste of time and money to send the police out looking for a 15 year old who phished your RS account. It's just silly, and it would be legally idiotic.
 
I feel so. Lots of people scam and take advantage of others and because of the fact that there are little to no legal reprocussions they keep doing it.
 
There are people in this world that have a stone heart. If they steal or scam virtual goods they have no conscience and feel no less of themselves at all. Its really sad.

Personally if I scammed someone, I wouldnt even be able to sleep.
 
paypalwiz said:
Stealing is stealing. Taking something that does not belong to you. Being virtual or physical it does not matter. I'm a big believer in karma.
Click to expand...

Karma is a bitch! Whats goes around comes around. Either way your doing wrong. I agree with you pay.
 
Emperor_Nero said:
It would be a waste of time and money to send the police out looking for a 15 year old who phished your RS account. It's just silly, and it would be legally idiotic.
Click to expand...

I think it would be more of a waste of time for a gaming company (Jagex, Blizzard, etc) to actually pursue and collaborate with authorities in order to reach arrests among those cyber thieves. The police on the other hand, are required to pursue an incident of crime no matter how insignificant or childish that offence may be. I would be cautioned if I were caught stealing a $10 bottle of vodka from a corner store, why shouldn't that bare minimum be enforced for those who steal virtual items that are worth significant amounts of money?

The reason why this isn't particularly enforced right now, is that majority of these online games legally own the items that are stolen, and there is no real gain for the company to search out an arrest for these offences. In the cases where these items are owned by the actual user (Again, Habbo Hotel for example) the user can seek out police investigation into any items stolen, and there is no reason why the police should shy away from these investigations.

Now, I'll admit, these cases are phenomenally hard to prove without the support of the company that runs the game in which the items were stolen from, so to have them collaborate with the police is a near must in these style of online games where the user actually owns the online items. Sulake (The owners of Habbo Hotel) actively works with police in these higher hacking/scam cases, which is a near requirement when the police are involved.
 
Yes, it should be illegal. It doesn't matter if its virtual or not, at the end of the day, stealing is stealing so of course it should be illegal.
 
Acidcantdie said:
I think it would be more of a waste of time for a gaming company (Jagex, Blizzard, etc) to actually pursue and collaborate with authorities in order to reach arrests among those cyber thieves. The police on the other hand, are required to pursue an incident of crime no matter how insignificant or childish that offence may be. I would be cautioned if I were caught stealing a $10 bottle of vodka from a corner store, why shouldn't that bare minimum be enforced for those who steal virtual items that are worth significant amounts of money?

The reason why this isn't particularly enforced right now, is that majority of these online games legally own the items that are stolen, and there is no real gain for the company to search out an arrest for these offences. In the cases where these items are owned by the actual user (Again, Habbo Hotel for example) the user can seek out police investigation into any items stolen, and there is no reason why the police should shy away from these investigations.

Now, I'll admit, these cases are phenomenally hard to prove without the support of the company that runs the game in which the items were stolen from, so to have them collaborate with the police is a near must in these style of online games where the user actually owns the online items. Sulake (The owners of Habbo Hotel) actively works with police in these higher hacking/scam cases, which is a near requirement when the police are involved.
Click to expand...

Also theft of virtual items can happen internationally and contacting your local police won't do a thing.

tl;dr...
Virtual items thefts are too hard to regulate case by case and there isn't any real efficient way to monitor it
 
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