Imagine you bought a hat. Do you own it? It would clearly seem so. You paid for it with your money, and now you can wear it, cut it apart, throw it away, and decide whether other people can wear it and who specifically has that privilege. But what if you bought that hat in a virtual world such as an online multiplayer video game? You paid for it with your money, your character can choose to wear it or not, and other players cannot wear your hat without your permission. However, should the game developers decide to take away your hat, it seems that there is little that you could do in a legal sense. You might send a support request demanding your hat or at least some recompense, but it seems unlikely that you would be able to go to court over your virtual hat. The game developer created the game and the rules by which this game operates, and you as a player have agreed to those rules by playing this game. If the end user license agreement (EULA) says that game developers have free reign to decide when to give away hats and when to take away hats, then you as a player have consented to their power to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These were the type of inquiries conducted in Bragg v. Linden Research, Inc<\/em>.1<\/sup><\/a>1. Bragg v. Linden Research, Inc., 487 F. Supp. 2d 593 (E.D. Pa. 2007).<\/span><\/cite><\/sup>