Well it is with great regret that I must say this.

[eikniwt]

Treating virtual goods as personal property would not address the problems of diminution or elimination of the value of virtual goods due to (i) alteration of the difficulty of acquisition through modifications in the game play or duplication of virtual items by game operators; (ii) modification or deletion of virtual items by game operators; (iii) illegitimate duplication of virtual items by means of third party exploitations of errors or weaknesses in the games’ source code; (iv) the third party use of computer programs that automatically play online games to acquire virtual items; (v) game operators suspending or terminating user accounts as a result of violations of the terms of service (such as abusive or obscene communications); and (vi) game operators shutting down or otherwise ceasing to support games due to declining player participation and/or revenues, insolvency or sale of the operators, or any other reason.




You signed and agreed on PWI ToS, thus they are real owners of all your property and no lawyer is going to save you.

But then again France might be retarded, after all they have you.

"To date, there have been very few lawsuits in the U.S. involving virtual goods. One case against the operator of Second Life settled out of court and another seeking to define the rights of purchasers of virtual property in Second Life is ongoing. As is frequently the case, technology far outpaces the law and the law struggles to catch up. Given the large amounts of money at stake, hopefully the uncertainty of the legal status of virtual goods will be resolved sooner rather than later."

That question has been already answered in France, as there are already four legal precedents, all going with personnal property definition.

There are actually no legal status of virtual goods in USA and the ToS doesn't apply if there is a sue against one individual (and not against PLW). One individual can't raise a contract that hasn't been signed between the two parties involved in the law dispute ; so the law applies (or legal precedents) and the ToS are irrelevant.