united-states contract-law internet online
Charging someone with theft of virtual currency
<p>I've done some reading about gruesome tales of folks spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on video game currencies only to have their accounts irreversibly stolen or lost due to a bad in game scam/trade, but are unable to take legal action because virtual currencies are not considered legal entities. Take for instance Warframe's platinum currency, Rockstar's virtual dollar or league of legend's Riot Points. Legally speaking, these "in game currencies" aren't recognized as personal property. But that doesn't change the fact that people place real dollar values on 60,000 Platinum or 50,000 riot points. </p>

<p>Now, I have to be guy to push this grey boundary. Suppose a stranger and I signed a contract in the real world (suppose the United States in a state of your choice) stating I'd pay him some in game currency for some real life service. If we ignore the EULA, TOS situation, if I received this real life service and refused to pay the in game currency would I be in legal trouble?</p>

<p>As per usual, not considering scamming anyone I'm just a curious guy.</p>

<p>Of course you'd be in legal trouble, the contract is still valid.</p>

<p>I also don't know why you don't consider virtual goods to be goods.
Take this example: You buy a 1 year subscription for (example) netflix. The next day they cancel your subscription but don't give you the money back because its not a "real good".
This should make it clear that virtual goods are goods too in the eyes of the law.</p>

<p>Question is if police/lawyers care about it as much as for "real" goods.</p>

<p>I don't know where you got the idea that</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Legally speaking, these "in game currencies" aren't recognized as personal property.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>They aren't recognized as <strong>money</strong> and you can't use them to pay your taxes or buy your groceries. But then you can't use collectable baseball cards to do either of those things, but they are personal property, you can sell them, and then use the money from the sale for whatever you choose. </p>

<p>A contract does not have to specify money, or even a thing with a generally agreed value (such as a share of stock). A contract could be made to exchange, say web site design services for a specific used car. It would be just as binding as a contract that specified a specific dollar amount.</p>

<p>In the situation in the question, where A agrees to perform a service for B, and B agrees to transfer to A 10,000 quatloos in the "Galactic Trading" game, the contract is valid and binding unless there is some reason, not mentioned above, why it would not be. If B defaults on the contract obligation, A could sue, and would be awarded whatever the Judge or Jury thought was the fair dollar value of the 10,000 quatloos, plus any damages that the failure had caused (and that A could prove). Or A might be able to get a court order requiring B to transfer the 10,000 quatloos. </p>

<p>In-game situations are different. In-game agreements may not be considered contracts, and in any case players usually agree to be bound by whatever in-game methods of resolution are provided. This is not unlike an arbitration agreement in an out-of-game contract. But that is not the situation in the question here.</p>

<p>Oh, I should mention. This is not a "theft", any more than failure to pay a bill is a theft. it is a breach of contract, and may result in a civil lawsuit, not a criminal prosecution.</p>
