Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave510
Excusing the thief's actions because the item being scammed is "virtual" is really naive.
The scammed virtual currency has real life worth, since it can be exchanged into real life currencies. Think of it this way: if I stole your money by using electronic/internet funds transfer (as opposed to scamming your cash), does it make my actions any more excusable? There's no difference, they can both be exchanged into real life currencies, and neither are "real" before the exchange (they're just data).
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It's only exchangeable if you disregard the eula (the timecode system w/ eve only allows for $$ to go to ccp, not individual parties). Legally speaking, the 'isk' has no real life value. Just because some lamer wants to break the rules and purchase 'isk', thus giving it value, doesn't mean that suddenly every other player should be treated as their virtual currency is real currency. Should I have to pay taxes on my 'game monies' just because someone else is willing to pay real money for it, even though that's explicitly against the eula?
Look at it this way. The people who lost their 'isk' got scammed 'in a game', a game that encourages scamming & deception. <--There's nothing wrong there. The people who purchased the 3k pounds worth of 'isk' outside of the terms of the game eula, lost their money and 'isk'. <--That's where the problem is, but the individual player is not the only one to blame. The people doing the purchasing knew the risk they were taking (if not they should have), and they lost.
The road you're trying to push here very quickly becomes a muddy slippery slope. Holding people legally liable for virtual assets, which is almost always explicitly deemed the property of the dev. company in their eula, would be just plain silly & would almost certainly destroy online gaming.
[BBC]Billions stolen in online robbery
07-06-09
