The legality and morality of breaking a company's TOS

[StatingPlague]

Hi. I currently found a system where I can buy digital currency within a game, distribute this currency across accounts, sell the accounts, and double my input money every day. However, the act of buying and selling both the in-game currency as well as the accounts is against the game company's TOS. My two questions are this:

1. Is a TOS a legally abiding contract where one could be civilly or criminally prosecuted for an infringement of this nature?
2. Legal or not, in YOUR opinion, is this way of making money moral? All the ingame currency is legitimately made and all of the people who buy consent and are clearly aware of what they are purchasing.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Is a TOS a legally abiding contract where one could be civilly or criminally prosecuted for an infringement of this nature?

The details of the game and its TOS matter, and without those details I cannot say with certainty what the situation is for your game. However, typically the TOS are part of the license agreement to which you agree before playing the game and is indeed part of the contract you have with the game company. For those games where selling accounts violates the TOS you certainly could be sued for that, though the more common remedy for that is to permanently ban the account seller.

Legal or not, in YOUR opinion, is this way of making money moral? All the ingame currency is legitimately made and all of the people who buy consent and are clearly aware of what they are purchasing.

It is not morally right. You are violating the rights of the game publisher and the sale of accounts adversely affects other players experience in the game if it's a multiplayer game. A lot of players get frustrated getting grouped up with players who bought their accounts and thus are totally clueless about how to actually play the game because they didn't have to spend the time learning the game while leveling their characters (or whatever the game is based upon). Moreover, the people buying the game may not realize they are not authorized to do that and get really upset should the publisher discover the account was purchased and ban them from the game.

 

[FlyingRon]

You can't get criminally prosecuted over contract violations by themselves. You could end up being sued civilly. A TOS itself is not a contract, though it may become part of a contract that occurs when you use the site.

What is likely to happen (and does) in these sitautions is the site shuts off your access and you forfeit whatever effort you've outlayed.

 

[zddoodah]

Is a TOS a legally abiding contract where one could be civilly or criminally prosecuted for an infringement of this nature?

Without knowing exactly what you're contemplating, it's not possible to rule out the possibility that you could be successfully sued by the entity that operates the game and by the folks to whom you sell the accounts in violation of the TOS. In other words, you could successfully sued for a lot more than you earn from this. Criminal prosecution is probably unlikely.

As far as the morality question, in the immortal words of Henry Jones, Jr., "If it's truth you're interested in, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall."

 

[Zigner]

This site is for US law matters only. Depending on your location, it's possible that this is criminal.

 

[adjusterjack]

However, the act of buying and selling both the in-game currency as well as the accounts is against the game company's TOS

When they figure it out and take ALL YOUR MONEY away you'll be back here whining "What are my rights? Can I sue?"