Yes but once they entered into a contract they were obligated to uphold it
despite their misconception as to the legality of its clauses. They could
deny access to the game, or the company, but they could not withhold any
real property gained as a result of the game or working at the company.
Therefore they could ban you and not let you play, but they'd have to let
you sell your account as that was your real property bought and paid for.
That was the interpretation I was given anyhow as I thought the same thing
as you.

Kit

-----Original Message-----
From: kim@... [mailto:kim@...]
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 2:17 PM
To: 'eqbards@onelist.com'
Subject: RE: [eqbards] (OT) Theft in EQ Redux

From: <kim@...>

On Tue, 7 Mar 2000, Kimes, Dean W. wrote:
>
> attorney gaming friend laid it out. Interestingly as such, Verant also
> cannot ban someone for anything they say while online. Despite the fact
> that it is in the TOS that you cannot say certain things without being
> banned, US civil liberties laws specifically prohibit anyone from
> voluntarily abrogating their own constitutional rights except in cases of
> national security.

Well, Verant is also a private company, and thus has the right
to deny access to the game to anyone they want. I don't
recall the Supreme Court decision governing this (way too long
since I took the course), but basically there was a dispute as
to whether a private company could be forced via civil liberty
obligations into a legal contract they didn't want. The
ruling was that it could not, although the government could
penalize it by witholding federal funding for that reason.

--
John H. Kim
kim@...

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