No... what stops most bad behavior is _consequences_. The law applies to everyone, but the consequences for breaking them don't.
We will see what(if any) consequences are placed upon MtGox. Personally, I still can't see how MtGox will be found liable of anything. Bitcoins aren't protected under any law and nobody said it was okay to trade your hard-earned government-backed fiat for some magical interwebz money. It might as well be fairy wings & unicorn tails. Don't get me wrong, I'm into crypto-coins and willing to lose up to 7k on them... but I fully understand that my coins could disappear in the next 5 mins due to any number of reasons and I have absolutely nobody to blame but myself.
The law is what defines the consequences, your pedantry is pointless.
> Bitcoins aren't protected under any law
False. Just because something is new doesn't mean existing laws don't apply to it. Bitcoins are property and property is protected by law regardless of when said item was invented. We don't have to create new law to cover every new invention man decides to own.
I disagree with you... but we'll see how it plays out with MtGox.
In the eyes of the law, I don't think bitcoin is your property anymore than buying a special weapon on Eve Online with fiat-money is your legal property. Maybe it should be, maybe it will be, but today that's not the case.
Or maybe I'm completely wrong... Has anyone sought legal action on financial loss related the value of an item inside Eve Online? Or any virtual item in any system?
A straight scam I understand, but say you purchased a bunch of rare swords & armor in some online game then next month the server crashes and all players lose their virtual items and the gaming company goes bankrupt. Is the company liable?
No... what stops most bad behavior is _consequences_. The law applies to everyone, but the consequences for breaking them don't.
We will see what(if any) consequences are placed upon MtGox. Personally, I still can't see how MtGox will be found liable of anything. Bitcoins aren't protected under any law and nobody said it was okay to trade your hard-earned government-backed fiat for some magical interwebz money. It might as well be fairy wings & unicorn tails. Don't get me wrong, I'm into crypto-coins and willing to lose up to 7k on them... but I fully understand that my coins could disappear in the next 5 mins due to any number of reasons and I have absolutely nobody to blame but myself.