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Foman is my favorite moderator. <3
Posted by: nemesishunter7
Posted by: A Good Troll
He was hit with charges including second-degree robbery and grand larceny
I'd argue the grand larceny charge if I was the guy's lawyer. The Terms of Use of Runescape (and really any game) specify that the items in the game have no real world value.
I mean really, Jagex says any property in the game is their property - not the account owner's. So can you rob someone of something they don't even own technically? Just throwing it out there.
The other lawyer could argue that the market dictates what value it has. This kid was trying to make a profit so it's clearly not the first time. There's obviously a market for those game coins.
I don't know of any prior case law, but there are obvious examples to the market value reference.
Say, someone steals your drugs. You can't press charges for the theft, even if the drugs have market value, because they are illegal. The market value doesn't matter.
As the person selling the items was breaking the terms of use of the agreement with the provider of the virtual content by selling, you could make the link between the two.