One for the books - YES. Yes, you can sue RMTs for cheating and 'bots!

The problem is the success stories are usually from companies based in first world Western countries. Yes, they might set up shell companies (like the league botters), but they can still be gone after. For everyone else in the middle of Nowhere, China or Bumf***, Thailand, there's not really much that can be done.

What can be done, SE is doing. Last few times I looked they were banning over 20,000 accounts at a time. That's a lot of RMT shutdown. (But as long as people are willing to pay, there will be more...)

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Until now, the common wisdom is that SE can't really do much to sue these people to stop them. I believe that may have changed, or at least the common wisdom may have to be adjusted.

The folks behind League of Legends won $10 million in a case against a bot/cheating service called "LeagueSharp", in addition to granting Riot (LoL creators) control over LeagueSharps websites.

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This is no the first by any means, Blizzard won against Starcraft bot makers and also private servers .. the problem is fining an RMT outfit that you can sue, and most of the big FF RMT is China-based, with little to no interest in letting them being sued.

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Originally Posted by Malzian

I hate to burst a bubble here, but I feel that I need to clarify a point that's generally forgotten with things like this...

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No bubble to burst. And as I said...

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It seems that RIOT may have got creative and used the Digital Millenium copyright Act to sue because there was circumvention of the digital protection of their software.

It may not be possible for SE to use the same grounds against the various RMT organizations that plague us, but this does show that it's possible for game operators and creators to go after these parasites.

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...so not forgotten in this case.

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Originally Posted by Airget

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...688955aeff4da4 that's why this happens on a near weekly basis? It's really annoying that people think SE does nothing about RMT. They clearly take the time to notify the playerbase of banning notices that take place due to RMT activity.

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Assuming of course that they really are banning those accounts and not making up fake reports to appease the player base that cares. I'm not so cynical as to think that is really the case but it's not entirely impossible. The number of accounts SE continues to ban on a weekly basis for RMT and the fact that there are still so many RMT in the game just goes to show how little effect SE can really have though. They may be able to slow the advance but it seems to be a battle of attrition with no end in sight. In all likelihood RMT will plague this game until the servers shut down.

If it were up to me... as rmt/bots are discovered, I would surreptitiously transfer them to a special server just for rmt/bots. As far as the UI shows, they are still on their original server, but in reality they've all been corralled together in one place to spew their rmt messages at each other rather than us. They can delete and remake their bots all they like but they will just be advertising to their competition. All the while, they are paying a sub. Seems like poetic justice to me.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

No bubble to burst. And as I said...

...so not forgotten in this case.

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Fair.

/10char

I've said this before as there's other legal precedent but always got shot down or laughed at. If SE really want to go after someone using hacking tools they *do* have the legal ability to do so.

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

SE thinking: pay millions to lawyers to take down an RMT company? Or, let RMT continue to pay a sub fee to us which makes lazy people who use RMT continue to pay a sub fee to us?

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I don't think RMT Accounts pay for Gametime actually, they're rather short-lived and live through the 30-Free Day they have, obtained through their Stolen A Realm Reborn Key Codes.
Why we have that many of them? Stolen Credit Cards, Stolen Accounts, Cheap Key Codes obtainable on dubious Sites and all that stuff.

What I simply assume is once a Key is frauded, be it Gametime Cards or Key Codes to unlock the Base Game, the System will flag those Accounts that has been registered with those and will ban these shortly after.
In the case of a frauded Gametime Card, they will take back the Days off the Account and the Account will face a Ban.

So pretty much those RMT Companies rather use the first thirty Days for their Advantage not to pay to actually be able to enter the Game.

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Originally Posted by Culfinrandir

I've said this before as there's other legal precedent but always got shot down or laughed at. If SE really want to go after someone using hacking tools they *do* have the legal ability to do so.

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They do have the Option, adding a Game Client Protection, being encrypted and the Packets changed every Week / two Weeks, this would raise Hell for many RMT Companies and the need to ban 10.000 - 20.000 Characters wouldn't be there anymore.
Sure there are Developers out there that do focus on creating a Bot for the People that actually play the Game and are literally lazy, those are Paid and work around the Protection in no time, sadly...

Of course, let's not forget the fact that with adding Protection to the Client... the Raiding Scene would die out so fast as there would be no Way to show ones DPS Numbers off ^^

Can we start a class action lawsuit against them? Think about all the gil bots have cost us as players by tanking various markets on the MB