Gaming: Uk Judge Rules That Runescape Gold Is Fair Game When Suing For...

It's easier to level the thieving skill with quests, anyway.

You can't kill that which has no life, but you can apparently steal that which has no value. A UK judge recently ruled that stealing gold pieces in Old School RuneScape counts for the purposes of at least one judgment that was made on Jan. 14, as spotted by Gamesradar.

The case involves an ex-employee of RuneScape dev Jagex who's been accused of hacking 68 player accounts, seizing hundreds of billions of gold pieces which he then sold outside the game for Bitcoin. Jagex argued the gold was worth over $700,000.

You can read the ruling in this admirably lengthy document where Lord Justice Popplewell deliberates the heart of the issue: "whether 'gold pieces' as a form of wealth in a video game constitute property within the meaning of s. 4 of the Theft Act [of] 1968."

That judgment includes both an astonishingly in-depth explanation of what Old School RuneScape is (Popplewell rightly finds that achieving progress in the game "can be a time consuming process") and the conclusion that, yes, stealing a bunch of RuneScape gold and selling it for Bitcoin counts as theft.

The argument is that, even though RuneScape gold doesn't hold any value in meatspace, "property should be construed as capable of applying to any thing which can as a matter of normal use of language be described as capable of being stolen, unless there are good reasons why such a thing should be excepted." Because gold is bought and sold both in the game and outside of it, it "may clearly be the subject of dishonest dealing."

2026 games: All the upcoming gamesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Source: PC Gamer