Think before stealing.

The next time you go to steal someone's object or script, keep in mind that this might happen to you!

The hearts of everyone in management at Sony Online Entertainment just skipped a beat reading that.

*thinks*

*steals*

*gets away with it*

*retires to Rio*

Looks like the Lindens thought about that one. From the TOS:

4.3 All Data Is Temporary. When using the Service, you may accumulate treasure, experience points, equipment, or other value or status indicators and contribute to the game environment ("Accumulated Status". THIS DATA, AND ANY OTHER DATA RESIDING ON LINDEN'S SERVERS, MAY BE RESET AT ANY TIME FOR ANY OR NO REASON. ALL CHARACTER HISTORY AND DATA MAY BE ERASED IN WHICH CASE EACH CHARACTER MAY BE RESET TO NOVICE STATUS. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT, NOTWITHSTANDING ANY COPYRIGHT OR OTHER RIGHTS YOU MAY HAVE WITH RESPECT TO ITEMS YOU CREATE USING THE SERVICE, ALL OF YOUR CONTENT AND ACCUMULATED STATUS HAS NO INTRINSIC CASH VALUE AND THAT LINDEN DOES NOT ENDORSE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS (SUBJECT TO ANY UNDERLYING RIGHTS IN THE CONTENT), ANY VALUE, CASH OR OTHERWISE, ATTRIBUTED TO CONTENT OR ACCUMULATED STATUS.

That game may have had a similar disclaimer, but the judge found them liable anyway because of poor security.

Wow! This dude spent the equivalent of $1200.00 US Dollars in two years on a pay as you go type plan
Thanks for $225.00 lifetime Linden Labs!

Doesn't this expressly go against the plan to convert L$ to real $? Adding the ability to get real money for in-world activities assigns a cash value. Hmm.

Linden Dollars and any online resources have a dollar value because you can buy and sell them on Ebay. While it might not be possible to sue Linden Labs to get your stolen goods back, it IS a crime to PK and rob someone in an MMORPG, and stealing things in SL is the same.

Stealing is a crime, even if it's virutal property. You can charge the person who stole from you with theft, and legally demand that the company hand over thier info, which they are legally bound to provide. Then you can even send them to jail.


And that's one more reason that PKing is bad.


(No I'm not kidding I consulted a lawyer on this)

Huh? What are these newfangled MMORPGs where PKing is a crime? Why back in my mudding days, the whole point of playing a multiplayer RPG was to, uh, kill other players! Instead of, you know, just killing AIs, which is what we did in single player games before we had the net.

Has it escaped everyone's attention that this was a ruling from a Chinese court? Last I checked, they don't set any sort of precedant for the courts of the Free World.

With regards,
Antagonistic Protagonist

It seems some of our neighbors on the other side of the Pacific take gaming very seriously. That court ruling is a bit odd, check out this excerpt from the January 2004 issue of PC Gamer Magazine:

"...Online RPGs already have intense combat, since you can't pause the action to ponder tactics or escape by loading up a saved game from a less grievous situation. High stakes ratchet up the excitement meter.

South Korean gamers seem wise to this correlation, but not all of their methods for upping tension are admirable. Koreans are obsessed with PC gaming, particularly online RPGs, to an extent that North American gamers find inexplicable. Korea's most popular online RPG, Lineage, has over 4 million subscribers--almost 10 times as many players as the most popular North American MMORPG. Over 130,000 subscribers signed up to play Lineage II as soon as it was released to Korean markets (a North American release is scheduled for February 2004). PC gaming is treated so seriously that Korea's Ministry of Culture and Tourism delivers a monthly "Best game" award. Gaming achievements are so valued that gamers resort to fanatical--and occasionally criminal--actions to accomplish virtual goals.

One 24-year-old Korean gamer was so obsessed with advancing his characters lifestyle that he became oblivious to self-preservation, and died (for real) after a drug-fueled 86-hour gaming binge. Incidents of Korean gamers violently attacking other players to avenge in-game affronts are common enough that authorities have coined a term for the practice: "off-line PKing". Since auctioning valuable in-game items and virtual affluence can bring in real-world wealth, online looting and pillaging is big business. In the first half of 2003, South Korea's police investigated some 22,000 cyber-crimes involving computer games. Now that's hardcore."

*Squeals tires leaving home to go buy another deadbolt for the front door*

*Looking at the tailgater in rear-view mirror, hmm, could he be an offline Pker?*

*Crashes into a snowbank*

LOL it took a while until someone finally realized that this cannot actually happen to you at all. Because, yes, it's on the other side of the world, thus cannot happen to anyone here

Well with SL I think the situation would more likely be player vs player and not involving LL at all.

But anyway... shameless hijacking comment: Lineage SUCKS. 4 MILLION subscribers? Are the Koreans MAD? THAT GAME IS MORE PRIMITIVE AND CRAPPY THAN UO WAS WHEN IT CAME OUT YEARS AGO! And SL blows it away so bad it's not even funny. Everyone looks the same... lol

This is one aspect of the RIAA's campain that drives me crazy.

Taking a virtual object or script, or an mp3 or a DVD rip is NOT theft. It is NOT stealing. It is NOT a crime that the US police can arrest you for.

It is a COPYRIGHT VIOLATION. It is very diffrent from theft, which can deprive someone of their property. It is using a non-physical creation without paying for it. It has to be settled in lawsuits, and damages are limited to the amount the item is worth.

Don't get sucked into the music industries claim that you are commiting a crime if you listen to a copied mp3.

Note I am not saying that using music and not paying for it is RIGHT. Obeviously teh creaters deserve to get paid for what they make if you listen to it. But the 14 year old kid that has a collection of 5,000 mp3's did NOT just depreive anyone of $100,000 in CD sales.. duh.. maybe he could have afforded $50 in CD's.. but thats the full amount of their losses.

Sorry.. this is one of my buttons.

That decicion in China was crazy. He should have had them restore his virtual items, not give a huge cash award to what was esentially worthless data. It would be like, oh.. sending in 10 proof of purchaces of Sugar Flake Cerial to become a Secret Member of their club and them loosing my acocunt status and me suing. If I won I should get my status back, not get $50,000 because thats how much I claim my membership was worth.

Bah.

I agree - its not theft if a copy is taken, unless the original owner is also deprived of the object, or his object is somehow altered or destroyed in the theft process.

However, Drakor is incorrect on the lawsuit-value of the object.

*Knowingly* violating copyright increases the punitive damages - sometimes quadrupes them. In addition, the act of copyright violation itself carries a mandatory penalty in dollars for each act.

Punitive damages cannot be revoked in a bankruptcy filing, either - if you're hit for one of those ridiculous million dollar lawsuits, and they win, you will end up paying them the balance of your paycheck each month for the rest of your life.

This is why the recording industry brings ridiculous amounts like 40 million dollars or punitive damages on some kid sharing music files. (Suing a kid like that is extremly wrong, in my opinion). Its because he knowingly violated copyrights thousands of times, but also spread those files to others hundreds of thousands of times.

Basically, everytime they win a lawsuit like that, they 'own' the individual in question for the rest of his or her life - because the fact that punitive damages cannot be revoked by bankruptcy, it means that each month the person who lost the suit has to basically give up the rest of their paycheck besides living expenses as 'tithe' to the company that won the suit. Forever. Basically, this is why they 'settle' and just fork over 1000 dollars to 'settle' the suit instead of risk going to court.

If you win a lawsuit such as that, you merely bankrupt yourself trying to defend yourself. If you lose it, you become the Recording Industry's slaves for the rest of your natural life.

So its better to just pay the 3000 dollar or whatever they ask for, even if you think the lawsuit has no merit.

Its a sorry state of affairs

Welcome to the USA.

And you call yourselves the free world.

The lawsuits that the RIAA are filing are not for DOWNLOADING music.. they are for people who are uploading it and sharing to others.

Legally that is a whole diffrent story and yes, there are large amounts of fines and various penalties that can be handed down.

Fair use still covers a lot of ground, even with the erosion from the RIAA's political might. So people who grab music files for their own use are still pretty safe... just don't even think about selling them.

For now, large corporations still loose overall when it comes to the publics rights. Make sure to vote to keep things that way!

Its the 'free* world'.

You know like, 'guarinteed* lower prices'.

Or 'never fails**'

Or 'Within 2* weeks'

RIAA...just another group of scumbags who have too much money sitting around.

www.boycott-riaa.com