UK Court Rules Stealing RuneScape Gold Is Criminal Theft in Case That Could Have Wider Repercussions for the Video Game Industry
From ign.com
A UK court has ruled that the unauthorized stealing of in-game currency can be legally classified as criminal theft. Former Jagex developer Andrew Lakeman was charged with allegedly stealing 705 billion Gold from almost 70 RuneScape players, with a real-world value of over half a million pounds, equivalent to around $750,000. He then sold this currency online for Bitcoin. Although Lakeman had no access to player accounts in his position at Jagex as a content developer, he allegedly accessed them by "hacking and/or using credentials of members of the account recovery team." In all, 68 players allegedly lost gold to ...
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