About the author
–
–
One of the biggest nightmares of the video game market is not necessarily piracy in the traditional sense, but trading in Steam, Xbox and PlayStation accounts.
A 32-year-old resident of the Gliwice poviat was detained by policemen from the Department for Combating Economic Crimes. According to the press release, a “well-known auction site” cooperated with the police – you can guess that it’s probably Allegro. For the last 5 years (2015-2020), the man has put games up for sale, earning money from checking accounts with access to games.
The evidence that the portal helped the police to collect was so specific that the 32-year-old heard nearly 130 accusations, including illegal distribution of digital games in order to gain financial benefits.
He now faces up to 5 years imprisonment for infringement of copyright and related rights, and the injured company estimated the losses at nearly PLN 30,000.
The trading of game accounts is extremely negative for the gaming industry and producers who cannot monetize their products, and it fosters a harmful mentality among some videogame audiences for whom account redemption may be viewed as “normal”.
On many digital platforms, including Steam, selling accounts is a violation of the terms of service, and Valve reserves the right to lock your account if it determines that the account has been bought by someone else.
– .
