Is the theft of virtual goods or purchase of stolen virtual goods illegal?

[purekilla]

So there was a court case in the Netherlands that 2 kids had gotten sentenced for stealing virtual items from runescape after assaulting a person to get them. The court had ruled that theft did take place as the person put time and effort into getting the items that were then stolen from him. It set a precedent in the Dutch court that virtual items had a value and that it was theft.

1. So my question i come to you all with, is the taking of neopets accounts or goods not owned by you considered theft in the U.S.
2. Are there any precedents in the U.S for a virtual items type of case?
3. If you pay for the taken goods are you still liable for the action?
4. How do you avoid paying taxes on your earnings from such activities without getting in trouble
5. Have any of you gotten in trouble for any of the activities included in this discussion?

*** Do not reply with anything close to or related to "your on a cheating site, this is irrelevant" as it will just be reported as spam, i'm looking for only legitimate answers and facts if their are any to be had***

[John]

I don't believe so. The best they could get you with is profiting off viacom somehow. All the items in the game are on different users account and stuff, but technically it all belongs to neopets which is part of viacom. I don't believe it's illegal as you never really steal the items off neopets. They just get taken from one part of viacom's control to another. They never leave. It's scamming which is illegal in game, but outside, it would be a tough case to make.

[purekilla]

I don't believe so. The best they could get you with is profiting off viacom somehow. All the items in the game are on different users account and stuff, but technically it all belongs to neopets which is part of viacom. I don't believe it's illegal as you never really steal the items off neopets. They just get taken from one part of viacom's control to another. They never leave. It's scamming which is illegal in game, but outside, it would be a tough case to make.

i thought the same thing when i heard and read the runescape case since runescape owns all the content technically but yet in the Netherlands they still managed to make a case out of that

another question is for anyone who uses the market place like i do, i believe according to the 1080 EZ int he U.S. you have to file taxes if you make over 1500 dollars in a year, how do you get around this or do you file taxes on the money you make off of linegames?

[John]

i thought the same thing when i heard and read the runescape case since runescape owns all the content technically but yet in the Netherlands they still managed to make a case out of that

I'm fairly certain that wouldn't fly in the US. Also viacom/the US Judicial system have bigger things to worry about than neopets. Viacom is a massive media conglomerate and neopets is nowhere near the top of the totem pole for them.

[purekilla]

I'm fairly certain that wouldn't fly in the US. Also viacom/the US Judicial system have bigger things to worry about than neopets. Viacom is a massive media conglomerate and neopets is nowhere near the top of the totem pole for them.

I do understand that and neopets is a dieing game in and of itself, my only worry and what im trying to figure out is, in a court of law, if a lawmaker wants to try to make a name for himself by somehow trying to take a argument over virtual goods to the supreme court, would it actually hold up? i had always thought there is no way since you technically never own anything and neither do any of the other players of the game but im just trying to do research on the situation


P.S.
no one has answered the question yet of the money you make and how you get around filing taxes or what you do with it to make it legally obtained

[Kylae]

i thought the same thing when i heard and read the runescape case since runescape owns all the content technically but yet in the Netherlands they still managed to make a case out of that

another question is for anyone who uses the market place like i do, i believe according to the 1080 EZ int he U.S. you have to file taxes if you make over 1500 dollars in a year, how do you get around this or do you file taxes on the money you make off of linegames?

The limit is 8k a year, and I've filed my taxes this year, through HR Block, for running a business that sells intangible goods. The person helping me just wrote it off as gaming codes.

[wrath]

It is mostly unprecedented. Virtual goods are not really considered a legal item to steal since most EULA's state that there is no value to online currency and that anything obtained on a game is generally owned by the company. Here's a really great article by Forbes that went into a very high-level overview.

(you need an account to see links)

[Kylae]

Anyone who gets caught "hacking" or scamming or selling other people's goods just gets frozen, asked to stop, or in some way shut down. No one gets prosicuted for it.

[Shawn]

How about the use of hashes, cracking them, to get access to someone's online game account. Or through his email, to his game account.
This could possibly be illegal.

[John]

That being said, there are horror stories of TNT figure out well known cheater's info and threatening to contact their school or parents or whatever. But i don't know if that's ever been confirmed or not lol.