Terms of use. Trading accounts in games and social networks: how the law looks at it as the sales of accounts in games, networks and auctions looks

Gamers belong to their accounts as a very valuable asset. It is logical: after all, in the creation of a character of this level, it is with such skills (or even fame) hundreds of human-hours. There are often cases when the account of the account is considered as a full-fledged criminal offense: last year in Belarus about the stealing of the account in World of Tanks with a tank, whose pumping has spent about 1000 UAH.

The same can be said about the owners of popular accounts on social networks or on online auction sites: in the May elections, the public "Typical Kiev" for $ 1 million. But despite the fact that such accounts are quite valuable asterior asset, in Ukraine their purchase Sale directly legislation is not regulated.

That is why the editors asked the senior lawyer and the head of the Intellectual Property Practice Astapovlawyers Illarion Tomarov explain to users that from the point of view of Ukrainian law occurs when you are trying to buy or sell an account in a computer game, social network or online auction. And also - what legislative consequences and responsibility can arise for you (illustrations are selected by the editorial board).

How does the sales of accounts in games, networks and auctions

If you are looking for the words "selling an account" on the Internet, then you will be offered to buy an infinite number of player accounts in computer games (most often it is WOT). The price of some "pumping" accounts reaches tens of thousands of hryvnia. There are sites and forums that specialize in buying and selling accounts, mediation and guarantees in such transactions.

On the Internet you can buy accounts on social networks "VKontakte", Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Most often they are sold by packages, and taking into account the information war at the moment it is a very good product - the sellers themselves write that demand and prices have rose lately. One separate account is consistent less often, which, for example, has several tens of thousands of active readers.

Each buyer of such a product has its own goal: either instantly be able to fight with rivals in a computer game, or get a specific audience to offer its products / services / ideas, or get the opportunity to deceive online auction users, offering a good lot at a low price, And after receiving the money to disappear without a trace.

In World of Warcraft, such a character with unique swords sold in 2007 for about 7,000 euros. True, by rumors, Blizzard banned account, since the purchase and sale of accounts by the company is prohibited

Account value is determined by different criteria - depending on the system in which it exists. If this is a computer game, then the more rating, weapons or skills has a hero, the more expensive player account. If we are talking about an online auction seller account - the price depends on the reputation of the face, that is, the stories of successfully completed transactions and positive customer reviews.

What legally means buying or selling an account?

From a household point of view purchase account - this is a program (message) of the login and password (or other information on which the account owner is identified in a system or another) from the seller to the buyer so that the buyer can fully control the account, including changing the login and password.

From a legal point of view, everything is more complicated. First, let's try to apply the rules about the purchase / sale of goods to the transactions with the account. Obviously, login and password are information, a set of characters, not a thing, so property rights remain as the subject of the contract. But this approach will not help us, because the norms of the Civil Code of Ukraine (hereinafter - the GKU) about buying-selling concern exactly things like objects of the material world.

Let's see what legal relationship an account occurs. Obviously, when registering on a social network, a forum, computer game or auction, you as a user make an agreement with a company that provides services under a service. Actually, the account is the condition of access to the service itself: communication, game or placement of proposals for the purchase of goods. The account occurs within the framework of compliant legal relations with the service provider.

Tank 9 IP-8 level - such together with the account hijacked in the Belarusian gamer in February last year

We emphasize the important circumstance - a company that provides services on the network, identifies users using login, not the real name of the person, which is indicated in the passport. The courts of Ukraine have repeatedly confirm that any person can register on social networks under any name, so you create and maintain a person's page on social networks, including by posting information and photos, any person can.

Another way to explain the nature of the account of the account - replacing the side of the contractual relationship by concessions of the right claim. This means that the person who created the account has the right to claim with respect to the person, which provides the service (service). Next, by transferring (messages) to another person of the login and password, the refusal to further use the service under this account is inferior to this right to the buyer.

The latter actually becomes a new user, although for the Party that provides the service (service), the user has not changed formally, while the same login is valid - the account name.

Such an explanation has the right to exist if it were not for one circumstance - most of the services in the section "Terms of Use", which are an integral part of the User Treaty, directly prohibit to inform others your username and password to the account. With this condition, the contract of sale is generally invalid, because the parties agreed to the ban on the assignment of the right of claim under the contract.

Actually, you can dream and offer some more ideas that would explain the nature of such a transaction: lease the right to use the account and all its capabilities (formally, the GKU allows this - part 2. Art. 760); Service for providing temporary access to someone else's account.

Is there an opportunity to dispose of the right to use the account or is it not subject to third parties? In our opinion, the answer to this question matters in two situations:

1. Who will be responsible for actions made from the account - a new owner or old?
2. Can a person who paid for someone else's account, but not received a login and password to access, go to court to recover losses from the seller or make it fulfill its obligation in kind. Is this right judicial protection?

In our opinion, the criterion for recognizing such rights and its protection should be the compliance of the behavior of the Parties to the general requirements for the implementation of the subjective gradic rights and reality of transactions. For example, if the account is bought in order to use someone else's reputation and operation of consumer confidence in a specific seller, then this is the abuse of the right. If we are talking about account in a computer game, it is hardly possible to abuse.

What will be the judicial consequences if the account bought to violate the law

If a foreign account is used to harm the third party - the publication of unreliable information, etc., then if the court refuses to recognize the new account owner (from which the actions caused by losses), this should not be the basis for the liberation of the offender from responsibility.

The court must impose a compensation for damage to a person who caused this damage (Art. 1166 GKU), while the primary account owner (a person who initially registered it), at least, directly unprecedented to the placement of unreliable information, that is, did not accomplish the actions that caused harm. It is right until the use of an account is attributed to the sources of increased danger, when the owner of such a source is responsible for damage.

When the Account Buyer accuses to harm, he, to avoid responsibility, will obviously refuse to buy and indicate that the account belongs to the primary owner, which must be responsible for the information common from this account.

Does judicial protection be subject to a person to force the account of the account to fulfill the obligation in kind - to transfer the login and password to the account? We believe that, subject to the provision of appropriate evidence of the conclusion of such a transaction, the court should not refuse to protect. Of course, if the conditions for using the service prohibit the transfer of login and password from its account to third parties, the Court can recognize such a transaction invalid.

Often the purpose of buying a login and password to someone else's account is committing criminal action.

In April 2014, the court sentenced the court that the person acting through the account on the site of a well-known online auction was posted for the sale of goods at a clearly underestimated price. After receiving a prepayment from buyers, the fraudster did not send the goods and did not return the money. After complaints of deceived buyers in the online auction security service, the criminal account was blocked, but he bought a login and password on the Internet to several accounts that belong to third parties.

This transaction would not be legal, because they were not sold by the owners of accounts, but another person without their consent. After that, the criminal repeated his scheme by placing ads on behalf of people, access to the accounts of which he bought. The security service could not quickly block it, because the product was formally sold the user whose account was a good reputation and reliable history.

In addition to buying someone else's account, transactions of the type of account transfer to use are possible. So in the case of the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation it turned out that information about the plaintiff was distributed as follows: the first person provided his second account - a personal page on the forum, and the second person, authorized under the first account on the forum, distributed certain information about the plaintiff.

The accounts market exists in the absence of civil regulations and at the moment did not gain such revolutions in Ukraine that would affect the emergence of law enforcement practice.

Illarion Tomarov, Senior Lawyer, Head of Intellectual Property Practice in Astapovlawyers

Last week, he was puzzled by the purchase of the WORLD OF TANKS souvenir products for one fan of the game. Previously, the World of Tanks website was a class store souvenir, but then it was closed on the alteration, and as I understood, I still did not open. Well, nothing terrible: there is eBay, where you can buy everything in general. Including souvenir products that have long ended in stores.

I went, looked, and with some surprise I discovered that souvenirs are all many, but the main goods on eBay are not rugs at all, the clock is yes flash drive, and ... accounts. For the amount of 500 to 60,000 rubles you can buy an account with a different level tanks. Of course, the more expensive, the better the set of tanks.

Good business! Well, it turns out, you can quarrel into the tanks in the tanks for a couple of months, it is thorough, and then sell everything to someone and start again. Yes, a couple of months before the tenth level, you are unlikely to try, and the cherished sixty thousand will not earn. But even 10-15 thousand is a good gain to the budget in the Russian provinces.

I only had a feeling that there is some kind of flaw in such a business. And to figure out this for sure, I asked Ivan Zhivitsa from Wargaming to advise - who can ask leading questions. And that's what happened to learn from the conversation with Dmitry Andronchik, the head of the Wargaming user support service.

It is no secret that in social networks and on eBay there is a lot of offers of sales of Wargaming account with a particular technique, experience, etc. For many, scaling of accounts has become a kind of business. What exactly items of the user agreement disrupts?

The sale of WORLD OF TANKS accounts is one of the problems that we have already encountered the first year. Obviously, such a number of people willing to sell or buy an account in Tanks are directly related to the success of the game and numerous community. However, no matter how nice to us to be aware of the popularity of the project, the purchase and sale of accounts is prohibited within the framework of the current user agreement, and in some cases (thank God, not so much) is like a fraud.

The player who sells the game account is violated 4.3.5 of the Agreement:

« The user is not entitled transfer rights to the game, including its additional opportunities, in commercial or non-commercial purposes to third parties, including by passing an account, conclude a contract or otherwise».

The actions of the player who buys an account, violate paragraphs 4.3.6 and 4.3.7:

« The user is not entitled to use another user account».

« The user is not entitled to alienate or otherwise transfer the account or acquire another user account, including by sharing or receiving as a gift».

Sounds frightening. Well, I contacted the seller on eBay, I bought a account with him with the mail to which it is registered. I start to enjoy life. What will happen if you notice?

Violators do not envy. The account block once and forever without the right appeal. It does not matter whether the player has consciously went around the rules or not. The application of sanctions against the currently issued game accounts is just a matter of time. Also one attacker could not exit dry out of the water.

We have a wide range of tools that allow us to clearly, promptly and unmistakably detect similar cases. It happens that the players are trying to smear by issuing the sale of an account for an attempt to unauthorized access, etc. What stories will not hear the stories. Here is a recent example of practice (original spelling and punctuation are saved):

"I will try to clarify the situation and very much I hope that you will understand me because I have invested a part of myself and now this loss is greatly affected by my health. I work as a system administrator in an agricultural enterprise (I can provide documents), we have many neighbors' competitors as geographically and on business directly. In August last year, I refused to transfer recording from our camcorders to the Deputy Competing Enterprise in the fact that his staff agreed to illegal transportation of products with our drivers. Since then, I constantly put sticks in the wheels. That evening, I did the prevention of the servers and played the tanks along the way, and we had a small holiday at the firm where the zootechnics of that ill-fated enterprise were invited with friends. I think it is not necessary to explain that once again I have decided to mock me. They came asked to play. Naturally I refused. Well, immediately began to blackmail me, including threatened, took the keys to the car and the documents that lay on the table. Began to demand to give the account, since I do not want to play. I became bad, I have a heart problem (again I can provide documents) and I gave everything ... I didn't give the mail by chance because it was tied to my old phone number for a long time ... I have nothing more to add, I just sincerely hopefully You will understand me, because all this time I live in a state of stress ... "

No matter how heartfelt and truthful is history, we continue to repeat: "Please do not try to enter the administration of the project to delusion."

Taking into account the huge baseWargaming IdHow much is it possible to technically track the transfer of individual accounts?

Transferring an account to another player is prohibited, and the user who transferred the registration data to another falls under sanctions.

We can not only identify the facts of such frauds in a timely manner, but also to clearly differentiate them. The more serious violation, the more severe punishment. Despite the fact that many processes are automated with us, we try to practice an individual approach in cases related to the transfer of an account. Sometimes the players themselves confirm that they did not register the account that is used.

And now you can see and catch?

From us it is difficult to hone anything. Immediately can be seen when the words diverge with reality. How exactly we distinguish a lie from the truth, I would like to keep secret :)

The account is transmitted quite often. Unfortunately, the violators do not realize the seriousness of their actions, and the consequences do not think at all: the transfer of registration data negatively affects the security of an account. Not always access to accounts are provided by players consciously. In some cases, particularly gullible users come across fraudsters (for example, through the "pumping services" and others).

We make a lot of effort to instill a feeling of vigilance to players, and we always try to keep them aware of the most common fraudulent services and schemes.

On the tank portal there is a special section on account security. There are various articles with recommendations for protecting accounts. From time to time we conduct shares, stimulating players more often change passwords in the game, tie mobile phones to accounts, etc. Now, for example, a promotion is held, within which users can change the mail and get a pleasant bonus. We sincerely hope that our efforts will not go in vain and gamers will begin more responsibly approach the issues of protecting accounts. And there will be less such appeals (spelling and user punctuation):

« I changed the password again to the one that was before (before hacking) (quite reliable) - Is this a vulnerability?»

Views: 10 115

Terms used in this Agreement
- Agreement - This document "User Agreement" located and affordable on the Internet at https: // Website / Agreement
- Site \\ Store \\ Playground \\ Service \\ Resource - Entertainment Resource Located at HTTPS: // Site
- Buyer \\ user \\ player - a person using the site exclusively in entertainment purposes to conceal its purchasing needs.
- Product \\ Bonus code - acquired or received in a lottery randomly generated code, which is a random set of characters, hypothetically giving certain intangible values \u200b\u200bin the online game World of Tanks.
- Account \\ Account - Buyer account on the site received when authorized using a Wargaming account or any other social network.
- Support \\ Operator \\ Actor \\ Administration - a person or a neural network that answers the players in text or voice format in order to voluntarily engage in the service.
- Return is the acting term, meaning the destruction of the goods on the resource servers.

1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
1.1 .. Below are the rules and conditions for the use of the service. Please carefully read them if you disagree with any item of this agreement, you must immediately stop using the site and leave the site.
1.2. Only persons who have reached civilianism under the legislation of the country of their residence can use the site. All the consequences of the failure of this condition are assigned to the user.
1.3. The site is an entertainment imitation of the online store based on the World of Tanks game, in which the user can purchase or receive the goods.
1.4. The player taking advantage of the site agrees and understands that all in-game property can only be purchased in the official store of World of Tanks located at https://ru.wargaming.net/shop/ and all the money spent on the resource are transferred to the further development of the imitation of the online store in Entertainment purposes, aware of all of the above, gives the report to its actions and is in the right mind and sober memory.
1.4.1 Cash to be reimbursed to the buyer only after its personal appeal in compliance with the procedure provided by the service in paragraph 9 of this Agreement.
1.5. Delivery of goods occurs on the E-mail address specified by the buyer. In case the goods have not been received by the Buyer within 24 hours, the buyer has the right to contact the operator to transfers the paid goods to a new e-mail address.
1.5.1 The goods delivered to the buyer's mail, the letter with which the buyer discovered is a complete deal. The site does not claim to work the goods on the online game Wargaming games, does not guarantee the receipt of intangible values \u200b\u200bin the online World of Tanks game after activating the obtained bonus code.

2. Account, Security
To open an account, the user must log in through the Wargaming OpenID account or any other available social network through which the service provides such functionality. The user is fully responsible for storing confidential information, for loss of access to his account. In addition, the user is fully responsible for any action performed by him. The site is not responsible for the actions committed by the user with respect to third parties. The user undertakes to inform the store on any unauthorized use of its account.

3. Privacy
The site undertakes not to disclose any confidential information provided by the user service. The site also undertakes to store all user confidential information in encrypted form. Personal data (link to profiles incl.) Can be provided to third parties only with the consent of the user.
Confidential and personal information can only be transferred to third parties if international legislation and \\ or authorities are required in compliance with the legal procedure. The site also has the right to transfer personal and confidential information to third parties if information is transferred within the sale or other business transfer (fully or in part), while all obligations to comply with this Agreement are transferred to the new owner of the service.

4. User.
4.1 The service reserves the right at any time to refuse to the user in service unilaterally, including in connection with the violation of the rules for the use of service or international legislation. Unacceptable attempts to unauthorized access, attempts to harm the service. When adding any information to the site, insults, extortion, slander, bluff, messages containing malicious information are prohibited (including viruses, trojans, worms, etc.), as well as information capable of harming third parties or business Service reputation.
4.2 In the event that the user found the resulting goods "not true", "invalid", "overdue", "not workers", etc. Exclusively on its subjective views, then he can contact the actors, where he can offer to purchase goods re-. In a re-purchase suggestion, an acting game created exclusively to entertain the buyer can be used. The player can be offered a refund, after which all information about the bonus code sold can be removed from the service at the discretion of the site.

5. Forbidden
5.1 Do not publish falsified data
5.2 prohibited the transfer of any materials that may disrupt the intellectual property of third parties
5.3 Forbidding fake publication of information in order to obtain unauthorized access to information or third parties
5.4 Do not publish information of religious and political information
5.5 Do not transmit data to account for account to third parties.
5.6 It is forbidden to publish information that may negatively affect the business reputation of the service, even if such information on the subjective opinion of the user is reliable, for this purpose, the site is premed by all written messages in the Reviews section and such information can change the service at your discretion.
5.7 It is forbidden to insult, call, question the professional qualifications and conscientiousness of individuals and legal entities, including users of the service and service administration.

6. Responsibility of Party
6.1 Paying for goods by any payment systems, you take full responsibility for your actions. The playground does not force and does not insist doing any actions.
6.2. The site is not responsible for the incorrect functioning of the Site Software or Web Server. The player uses the software according to the principle "as is" ("AS IS"). If the site establishes that when using the site, a failure (error) occurs in the work site, the results that took place during the incorrect software work can be canceled or adjusted at the discretion of the site. The user agrees not to appeal about the quality, quantity, order and terms of the goods provided to him.
6.3 SERVICE Never obliges and does not force certain actions. All actions committed by you on the site are carried out exclusively under your responsibility.
6 .. The playground can unilaterally update \\ supplement \\ edit this agreement without the obligatory notification of users. Players are obliged to independently follow the messages in this agreement, the last editing date of this agreement is always indicated at the bottom of this page.

7. Adoption (accent) of the terms of the agreement
7.1 Press the button to buy in the pop-up window on the pages of the site, you agree to accept and comply with the terms of this Agreement and you respectively
a) agree to use the tools of electronic communication to conclude contracts;
b) you also refuse any rights or requirements applicable in this case, for which the own signature is needed, to the extent that this is allowed by any applicable legislative;
7.2 If you do not agree to accept and then follow the Terms of this Agreement, please do not register the account and \\ or stop using the resource. Further use of the service will be considered as your consent to the terms of this Agreement, which, as we notified you, can be periodically applied by the Regulation.

8. Rights
8.1. Exceptional right to the service belongs to the service
8.2. Trading stamps, brand names and illustrations are the property of their right holders.
8.3. The site is not a public offer, respectively, any information posted on the site (including any details of physical \\ legal entities, addresses, telephones, photos) can not be regarded as reliable. The only and legal and significant information is available only on the Agreement page.
8.4. https: // Site is not part of Wargaming Group Limited, is not a partner and does not claim any relationship between the service and Wargaming Group Limited.

9. The procedure for resolving disputes and settlement claims
In the event of disputes between the user and the service about the execution of this Agreement, the parties will adopt all measures to resolve them through negotiations among themselves. The complaint procedure for resolving disputes is required.
Claims are accepted and discussed by the service only in writing to the email address and in the manner provided for in this Agreement and the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

To resolve disputes that have arisen between the user and the service, the following complaint procedure is applied:
- A user who believes that his rights are violated by the service, it is entitled to send the latest claim containing the essence of the requirements, justifying its presentation, as well as its contact details.
- the service is considering the resulting claim within 10 (ten) working days from the date of receipt of the claim and sends its response to the email address or postal address specified in the claim;
- In case of no resolution of the dispute, the dispute is subject to consideration in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation and the rules on the subordination in court at the location of the service.
The service does not consider anonymous claims or claims that do not allow you to identify the user on the basis of the contact data provided to them, or claims that do not contain the data specified in this section of this Agreement.

ATTACHMENT 1
If the buyer considers the deal invalid, it has the right to refund paid amount for the goods, for this it is necessary to contact the service to resolve the claim in paragraph 9 of this Agreement. To obtain compensation, you must contact an email at the address and prepare the following list of documents:
1. An appointment document is applied, where the buyer's full name is visible and the date of birth (the remaining data can be smeared).
2. Attach the Self-photo with the document to identify the buyer to the sent document. 3. Attach evidence of payment, as well as details from which the goods were paid.
3. Attach a photo or scan-copy Statement in free form Describes the cause of the return (mandatory indicating - an article from the Civil Code of the Russian Federation §2 Invalidation of transactions or an article of the RF ZozPP on the basis of which compensation is requested) with a detailed explanation.
4. Attach details for compensation.

Reimbursement will be discussed within 3 (three) working days. If the service has additional questions - the buyer must give them an answer if the answer is not received within 3 (three) working days - the application for compensation is closed. If compensation is satisfied, it is sent within 7 (seven) working days minus the commission for serving acquiring systems both when making purchases and during compensation.