Looks like Bragg got his stuff back

As per blog.

What do you think happened here?

Did he get to keep the land he hacked out of the auctions? Anybody know what sims these were?

edit: there's been reports of older mainland sims getting upgraded. If he did get to keep them, I hope LL sticks this scumbag with some old & crusty class 3's..

I guess they both realised they were in the wrong and decided it was easier to settle out of court. We'll never know I guess.

we could always mug him and take him to a Bdsm dungeon for torture when he comes online

Then he will spill it!

Seriously though, this looks like the TOS is not all powerful.

I guess they unfroze his account and refunded whatever he underpaid at auction for the sims. One could also guess that it was decided somewhere along the way that Linden Lab couldn't keep his money and deny him use of the sims he "won" in rigged auctions.

Just shows that some times you get away with it. Just ask O.J.

Considering the time and effort spent by both parties, I don't think anybody got away with anything.

Makes you wonder if in the end he really "won".

Everyone knows who he is now, so do you think he will still have to verify?

Exactly. And not all press is good press. I worked in for a major hotel company for years (which shall remain nameless) and we almost always settled out of court no matter how right we thought we were. Just didn't want the publicity or mostly because the attorney's fees just made it better to end it rather than be right.

Amen brotha !

Linden Lab has the money and Bragg doesn't, well not the amount LL has, I assume Bragg wouldn't have been able to walk away without all his costs being paid by LL. IMO Bragg is probably the happier of the two.

Never thought about this what going to happen. LLABS say they were partly wrong? Goes to show you that Bad PR against you will hurt you. Everyone gives in at some point.

When you settle out of court in the US theres no requirement for either side to admit they were wrong.

Unless thats a condition of the agreement, its just a "no one won" kind of thing.

On the record.... no.

In the public eye..... Bragg - 1 LL - 0

I was really hoping to see *any* judicial statement on the (in)tangability of virtual property. I didn't care which side prevailed, but it held the promise of laying some groundwork that is much needed.

Oh well.

He is correct you know. No matter how you word it. He won.

I am not happy about this judgement but are you going to do.

Usagi

What all did he get?

If he just got the money that he paid for the stolen sims and court costs - doesnt seem like much of a win to me.

I still don't know what to think about this case. Both parties were in the wrong, as far as I'm concerned.

I'll agree with Bradley that in this case, the press was equally bad for both parties. Bragg did wrong and LL did wrong, and the press was looking for something that would tarnish the image of SL and LL. All both really could do was cut their losses and settle before this really became something for the press to speculate about.

Plus, the mutual settlement prevents this from being a test case for other issues that crops up with MMO's.

If the reputation he has now is winning, I would rather lose. I would hope he is shunned and banned from decent company.

Well it was unlikely LL would have been able to keep the money he paid for property they seized without having prosecuted him.

If you overpay a phone bill then they cancel your service they cant keep the overpayment.

So from the LL side, they probably knew they weren't keeping that part of the money.

The issues of who is the winner is not the issue. Problem is Bragg is allowed back in the game and is assets restored. Like it or not he still comes out the winner. I don`t like how this came out. But the result is bragg is back.

In litigation and accidents, rarely is one party 100% right and the other 100% wrong.

In this case, LL did not reasonably and adequately protect themselves from hacking and they were found to have a section of the TOS which was unenforceable.

LL was obviously in the greater wrong, because Bragg's assets and revenues were refunded. LL was forced to change the wording of the TOS and needed to beef up security with it's auction process.

Simply put, LL's car was stolen, but had they not left the keys in the ignition, the situation would have never happened. They weren't allowed to use a subset of draconian rules to play judge jury and executioner.

Yes it seems LL wanted it both ways.

well they sold those sims again I'm sure -

So they got their money.

They aren't really authorized to punish people for violating the TOS beyond canceling the service.