Because the website's likely offshore, somewhere that doesn't particularly care about US laws or enforcing any legal provisions of EULAs.
But if they're doing this for a U.S. game, made in the U.S. and owned by the U.S., they're agreeing to the laws we have here when they play a U.S. game, aren't they?
I don't know, I'm probably completely wrong. XD
They're mostly in China.
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They don't care.
Scalping tickets is illegal too, yet...
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Repurposed
Thing is... *they don't care.*
Ban a trial account? They'll snag a few hundred more.
NC tries to serve them with some papers? They'll hold no legal weight if the country *they're* in doesn't say they do.
There aren't, by the way, *laws* per se. They're just violating the EULA. Even *here* there's question about just how much weight that can carry, as I recall.
That sucks... 
Oh well, thanks for the quick responses.
But still... 
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There aren't, by the way, *laws* per se. They're just violating the EULA. Even *here* there's question about just how much weight that can carry, as I recall.
[/ QUOTE ] This.
It's not illegal in the sense that they will be prosecuted by a court, only that the Devs can take internal action against them by banning.
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There aren't, by the way, *laws* per se. They're just violating the EULA. Even *here* there's question about just how much weight that can carry, as I recall.
[/ QUOTE ] This.
It's not illegal in the sense that they will be prosecuted by a court, only that the Devs can take internal action against them by banning.
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By a court itself, no. It's not a *criminal* offense. But, they could be taken to a *civil* court, which is different. Although most RMTs are based out of country, it seems, which would provide difficulties.
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Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
It would cost more to get a single RMT company 'shut down' in a civil suit than NCSoft is willing to pay.
Or, would you rather the development budget go to legal fees to prosecute out-of-country, say, in China?
Personally... I think NCSoft should go the "isolate and lock" route. Find the IP subnets the RMT'ers are working off of, and block them at the edge routers. You get flagged for RMT spam on an NCSoft game, you're no longer able to log on to any of them.
Get a new IP? The ban starts growing, subnet by subnet.
Yes, it would 'lock out' legitimate players, but at some point the ISP's that cater to these guys would get such a low rating from gamers, no one who wanted to play would sign up with them. Same goes for IP 'proxy' services. If you NEED a proxy to play... then there's something else going on.
Or, the alternative would be to take those IP's, find out who the service providers were, review THEIR EULA's and TOS documents... and then hand the list of 'flagged' IP's and times over to them. "We caught one/six/ten/two hundred of your customers violating YOUR anti-spam clause. We request that you follow up on this, ensure that they stop, or we block your subnets to take care of the problem ourselves."
If Comcast got handed this, or AT&T, or Verizon or any other major provider, their Policy guys would be ALL over it. They don't want their subnets banned from games, as gamers are a huge part of their subscribers. So instead they'd lower the boom on the guys who were responsible.
I know AT&T would. I've worked with their Internet Services division for the last ten years. Someone uses us as a provider, and gets busted sending spam or hatemail or viruses or whatnot? We don't back off and say 'we're just the transport'. They get called out, kicked off, and told to take their 'business' elsewhere.
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Yes, it would 'lock out' legitimate players, but at some point the ISP's that cater to these guys would get such a low rating from gamers, no one who wanted to play would sign up with them. Same goes for IP 'proxy' services. If you NEED a proxy to play... then there's something else going on.
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What then is the recourse for players if the ISP doing this is the only choice for a region?
IMO, additional action like this would be more of a headache for not very much gain.
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But if they're doing this for a U.S. game, made in the U.S. and owned by the U.S.
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While the game was made by a U.S. company it is now fully owned by NCSoft which is Korean.
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Chances are that the ISPs in China, where most of the RMT is coming from, also suffer from a case of "don't care". Over there, that sort of enterprise may be those ISPs biggest clients. They're not going to boot them like AT&T, Time Warner, or Comcast would here in the U.S.
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But if they're doing this for a U.S. game, made in the U.S. and owned by the U.S.
[/ QUOTE ]
While the game was made by a U.S. company it is now fully owned by NCSoft which is Korean.
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Technically no.
City of is owned by NC Interactive, an American company.
Which just so happens to be wholly owned by NCSoft, a Korean company.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
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Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
It is illegal to sell other people's property, just about everywhere. The problem lies in explaining to a police official that someone has sold/stolen your property when it is ultimately still within your possession.
Banning RMT ISP's wholesale would be nice, S_T, but not long ago, I heard of a few twists that the Chinese RMT groups are using to circumvent such zone banning. Although I dont have all of the specifics, it appears that they are rerouting their connections through various services. At least one of which is connected to a major regional ISP in Australia. Problem. Block that last verifiable node, and you block out a major 'legal' population.
Also, from what I recall, they were even having problems in Australia, with pinning down and locking out these rerouters. If I'm not mistaken this is just one of the octopus' tentacles. RMTers have put a lot of thought into this, and will not be easily brought down.
Then again, personally, I remain relatively unaffected or unperturbed by the RMT spam. It is second nature for me to remove spam and clear my boards; so I really dont notice them consciously. I do not like that they affect others enjoyment of the game, but they cannot affect mine since I do not wish it.
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There aren't, by the way, *laws* per se. They're just violating the EULA. Even *here* there's question about just how much weight that can carry, as I recall.
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Actually, they're doing more than just breaking the EULA. They are using NCsoft's "City of Heroes" trademark and game elements ("influence," etc.) on their web sites in a non-protected way for commercial gain, which is illegal in the U.S. I've glanced at some of the sites, and they even use the City of Heroes logo, which is a HUGE no-no.
Nevertheless, everyone is generally correct. What they're doing may not even be illegal in China, and the U.S. doesn't have the authority to impose its laws on other countries all willy-nilly. (Witness: BitTorrent.) Even if it is illegal in China, the cost of prosecution would be prohibitively expensive, and even if successful, the people who are running the RMT sites would simply register a new domain name and open up shop again.
It's one of those things where it may not be right, but there's no good way to deal with it.
Well, except that they do have power to limit advertising within the game through various technical means. And to a large extent, it has worked. Anyone who was here before the trial account nerfs can testify to the effectiveness, we used to suffer a pretty steady barrage of RMT tells and much more spam e-mail than we do now.
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It is illegal to sell other people's property, just about everywhere. The problem lies in explaining to a police official that someone has sold/stolen your property when it is ultimately still within your possession.
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If a company was to sue an RMT company, it would go one of two ways :
Theft : Theft of REVENUE, as any services for the game should be provided by the company owning the game - especially SOE with their "You can buy items/gold/etc to use on special servers" setup. Or, theft of revenue because instant gratification may lessen the time (and thus, subscription revenue) a given player will play the game.
Breach of Contract : Simple, and straight forward. Violating the EULA/TOS.
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Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
Ok, we all know about the RMT spam e-mails, and we all know the websites they're advertising. I would like to know something.
The EULA says that it's illegal to do RMT of any kind in this game. So, when you sign up, you're signing a contract that says you agree to this. Now, we have these websites that are made specifically for RMT. If there is a website made to deliberately break the rules and partake in illegal trade, why can't we just tell the authorities and have the website(s) shut down?
Editid cuz my grammer iz badd.