In real life
There are some people who will take themselves
Valuable game accounts
Rent it out to someone else for income
But in the process of renting
Lessee due to personal reasons
Causing the account to be banned
or the account value is depreciated
Who should bear the loss?
Recently, Judge Zhang Jianfeng of the Zhangsu Court of the Juye Court tried such a case.
Case review
Xiao Wu rented out the game account through the "xx rent" platform of a network technology company, and Xiao Chen rented Xiao Wu's game account on November 9, 2023. Due to Xiao Chen's illegal plug-in behavior, Xiao Wu's game account was fined and banned by the game's official website for 10 years. The game account rented by Xiao Wu has been recharged with about 70,000 yuan from the date of registration to the date of being banned.
Xiao Wu believes that he has invested a lot of money and time in the game account, the defendant has made a regulatory mistake in a network company, and the defendant Xiao Chen's use of plug-ins has caused the plaintiff's game account to be banned from the game's official website for 10 years, and the two defendants' actions have caused significant losses to the plaintiff, resulting in the plaintiff not being able to use the game account to generate income for 10 years. For this reason, Xiao Wu sued the court: demanding that the defendant a network technology company and Xiao Chen jointly compensate for the loss of 79,763.2 yuan.
Court mediation
In this case, a network company, as the operator of the number leasing platform, only provided transaction information publishing services for both parties, and its detection of plug-ins was only to terminate the continued rental and use of the account after discovering possible account risk behaviors, rather than prohibiting the lessee from using the plug-in. Moreover, the network company terminated the use of the tenant's game account after receiving a complaint from the system and detected the account risk, which has fulfilled its regulatory obligations within a reasonable range, and the plaintiff has not provided other evidence to prove that the company is at fault. Later, the plaintiff withdrew the lawsuit against an Internet company.
In this case, Xiao Chen leased the game account involved in the case from a certain platform for use, and illegally plugged in the process of use, resulting in the game account being suspended by the game company for 10 years. Xiao Chen's behavior caused Xiao Wu's lawful right to use the game account involved in the case to be damaged, and he should bear the corresponding liability for infringement compensation for Xiao Wu's losses. At the same time, Xiao Wu should be aware that there is a certain risk in renting out the game account, but he still rents out the account for a fee, and is also at fault for the occurrence of the damage result. In the end, after the presiding judge presided over the mediation, the defendant Xiao Chen paid the plaintiff Xiao Wu 8,000 yuan in court.
What the judge said
As online virtual property, game accounts are different from real goods, they exist in the online game space, have legitimacy, have a certain value, can be controlled by people, meet people's needs, can be traded under certain conditions, and have general commodity attributes, when online virtual property is illegally infringed, the same as ordinary property is infringed, the infringer shall bear civil tort liability.
Links to legal provisions
Article 127 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China: Where laws have provisions on the protection of data and network virtual assets, follow those provisions.
Article 1165 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China Where an actor infringes upon the civil rights and interests of others due to fault and causes damage, he shall bear tort liability.
Where it is presumed that the actor is at fault in accordance with the provisions of law, and he cannot prove that he is not at fault, he shall bear tort liability.
Article 1184 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China Where the property of others is infringed, the property loss shall be calculated according to the market price at the time of the loss or other reasonable methods.
Article 1173 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China Where the infringed party is at fault for the occurrence or expansion of the same damage, the infringer's liability may be reduced.
Source: Juye County People's Court