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When people sell WoW accounts?
tl481
Member Posts: 27
I have been seeing a lot of WoW accounts lately, propably due to the expansion. But is that stuff even legal to sell your account, I've never really paid attention to that stuff or know anything about the legal issues? Anyone with the smarts on that? 
Comments
Whether or not it's legal is a bit of a gray area.
It is against Blizzard's policies, so if you get caught they ban that account. Ebayers try to get "wordy" and say oh you're not buying blizzards intellectual property, you are compensating me for my time developing these characters. Riiiiiight. Blizzard doesn't care if you give your account away, there is some wording to the effect that if you transfer the account, all cdroms and uninstall from your PC that it's ok. Making a buck for it will get you banned if caught.
As to why you're seeing more being sold now that is simple business. With the level cap going to 70 there will probably be a demand for ready to go 60s.
It's completely LEGAL to sell an account, there's no law you'd be convicted under for it. No one has ever gone to jail or been fined for selling an account. It is, however, against Blizzard's rules, so they can ban the account if they can tie the ebay name to the real name. It's also a pain if you use your real contact info, since whoever you sell the account to will be playing with your real name and address.
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As I said before the legality is a bit of a gray area. Mythic went to court few years back to try to enforce their EULA about buying/selling but I think they settled out of court. Simply put game companies are a bit nervous trying to enforce this. If a court rules against you, then "ebaying" will go through the roof as it would be legal now, throwing your game balance out of whack. If they rule for you then do you lump ebaying in with other cyber crimes or is this different? Plus since many games go international, if America says selling on ebay is illegal, what can you do to someone in Europe selling to someone in Korea?
That's why I said legally it's a gray area. Rather messy thing a court case can be.
It IS legal now, plain and simple, no grey area at all. There is no crime that I could be convicted under for selling an account, there's no risk of jail time or of having a criminal conviction on my record for doing it. Tell me what law someone could be convicted under for selling a game account, pretty much all of the federal and state laws are online now so it should be easy to cite a law that someone would be breaking.
Like I said before, you're possibly in violation of the EULA contract but breaking contracts is completely legal (aside from some exceptions that don't apply here). If I sell an account, Blizzard could ban that account, or even me personally from using their service, but that doesn't mean what I did was illegal. The only way I'd end up committing a crime was if I hacked Blizzard's servers to reenable my account or something along those lines.
If Mythic, not a prosecutor, goes to court, what they're going to court about is not illegal, just a violation of a contract. If something is illegal, then game companies would not try to enforce it, they'd simply inform the police and let the cops and DAs enforce it. The EULA is a contract not a piece of legislation, breaking a contract means you might have to pay damages but will not have any jail time or criminal conviction.
If you break into someone's computer and take private information, or steal a credit card number and use it, you can be convicted of a crime and go to jail for it, but there is no similar law for selling a game account. Ebaying accounts will not be 'lumped in' with any kind of crimes because it's simply not a crime, it's just against game rules and possibly a contract.
There's nothing gray about it. If there was some way to ride say $500 on this, I'd take my old second account that I ended up cancelling after a moneth and sell it on ebay, then offer to swear in any court in the country that I'm selling that account. If you can find a court that would try to convict me of breaking the law for that, you'd win the bet, if not I would. I would end up making $500, because it simply isn't against any law (at least in the US).
I don't understeand whi ppl selling the accounts...the game is just for fun..not a buisness for players. If u need a lvl 60 char full with epics play the game. Where is the fun if u start from the top...
Apparently Pantastic failed to understand what I said so I will try to clear it up as you are obviously missing what I said.
The legality being a gray area is because the issue hasn't been forced yet. If I take a game and decompile it, hack it, etc and resell it that IS illegal as well as violation of the game's EULA. If I use racist, sexist, or other various harsh language in a chat that not only violates the EULA, but can be illegal for slander, assault (not to be confused with battery which is physical abuse) and the like. Now selling the accounts is "gray" as I said because it violates the EULA but no company has really tried to enforce it with the law. If they push it and lost a court case, it could open up a can of worms as now the buying/selling of ingame items for real cash would be "legit" as it were, potentially ruining the ingame economy, class balance, etc.
Now I cannot say what law they broke by selling one because there isn't one up yet, although certain computer laws or theft laws could apply. If a court ruled that it is illegal then the laws would be later changed to adapt to this new ruling (as many laws have done in the past). The point of legality is that you are taking Blizzard's property that they are leasing to you and selling it for your personal profit. If it was a physical item, this would obviously be illegal. I lease a car and sell it to John Doe, I'm sure the dealership would take exception to that. The fact the items are mere code is where the gray area comes in.
What Mythic went to court for was not about contracts. It was about them saying they own their intellectual property and players are only "leasing" it for a monthly fee, therefore have no right to sell it for personal profit. The case didn't go to trial as it was settled, I don't remember more specifics as this was a few years back. Sorry.
SOE did a similar thing with ebay in the ol' days of EQ1. Ebay was selling EQ accounts and Sony made them stop by threatening to take them to court. Again, that was settled before it went to trial.
The example of breaking into a computer and stealing info was a good example, but it agrees with what I said. You are taking Blizzard's files and selling them to John Doe. They weren't yours to sell in the first place.
I'd take that bet if it was solely in one country. The "grayness" I spoke of comes from the fact I mentioned that even if say the USA says it's 100% illegal, what can you do to someone living in England who sells to a guy in China? American laws don't apply to them. Again, this is why so many companies are having trouble enforcing this and getting it stopped as the code goes out over the whole internet. Would be very hard to get a standard international law passed that all countries would agree on and adopt.
Sorry the wordy length, I hope I was clearer this time around. Sometimes short and sweet posts get misread.
Personally though I don't think any court would rule in favor of the companies on this one, but that is just my opinion.
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I'm not aware of any court case forcing the issue of whether picking my nose is legal, yet there is no grey area about picking my nose.
If there isn't a law against it, it's legal. Your vague 'well, there are some laws that could apply' doesn't mean that they do. The fact that you keep listing companies suing other companies is confirmation that it's legal, since if it was illegal the companies would not be suing, they'd have a prosecutor do it.
No, it doesn't, it disagrees with what you said. Breaking into a computer and stealing info has a law against it, selling an account doesn't. They're two different things, one illegal, one legal.
So you'd just hand me $500 after accepting the bet, or can you tell me which Federal or State court would convict me of a crime? Face it, there's no grey area. No court in the country is going to convict me of a crime for what we're talking about, so it's legal.
Which FF Character Are You?
Who does the account legally belong to? Blizzard or the subscriber?
Can the ownership of the account be transfered?
Who pays taxes on income earned from the selling of an account?
Just think about the first part. Do you pay $15 a month on an account you don't own?
That doesn't bother me as much as I am sure it bothers other people.
I think there is a sucker born every minute. If you can sell something that is not illegal today, then go right ahead. It will probably be taxed or illegal tomorrow.
I don't like the idea of selling accounts. I would never sell any of mine. I learned a lesson a long time ago about giving away characters of mine on MUDS. I also think it's crazy to pay that much for a character. However, since Blizzard hasn't asked for an injunction against EBAY, account selling will continue.
Apparently my last post still wasn't clear so I'll make one more attempt to clear things up.
I thought I was clear as to why this a gray area. Since the code goes out over the whole internet you would have to get an international law to cover it. If England says it's illegal but America doesn't what do you do to the American who bought an account from an Englishman? Also many sites change their wording to make it sound that they aren't sellling the account, just compensating the seller for the time played.
I am unclear about your logic that if you sue someone for something then it's legal? When you sue someone there is a prosecutor and defense attorney. If it is a civil case and not a criminal case, then usually no jail time but fines and/or damages will be paid with possible probation. There is a difference between civil and criminal law, criminal usually gets more press in TV shows and news since it's more "interesting" to the public.
The example of taking code from a computer and selling it does agree with what I said if you stop and think about it. You are leasing the account from Blizzard, but then turning around and selling their code for your own personal gain. Only difference in the analogy, is that if you "broke in" to take code you be guilty for Breaking & Entering, Trespassing, etc.
As I said before the bet you mentioned would have to be if somehow the code never left one country. Since it does, it is very difficult to get a law passed that would apply to people living in different countries. China has a law that you have to be 18+ to play MMOG's, but if you live outside they can't enforce that. Sony and Mythic have been to court over this and both times the second party settled before trial began.
The law isn't black or white, many times a prosecutor will try to say the defendant should be guilty by applying an existing law to what they did. In New Jersey it's illegal to send Spam Email, meaning fines and/or jail time. In my state it's illegal to send lewd/obscene pics thru a video phone or messenger service. Does the law specifically say "no nudie pics in IM's?", nope. They said the same laws that apply to flashing in public and harassment, apply to that and treat it as such. MMOG's are still fairly new, EQ came out in 1999, so the point of who owns the intellectual property and who has the right to sell said property hasn't been pushed. It will eventually have to be settled though.
Sorry again for the wordy post everyone. Hope I've cleared up what wasn't clear before.