The IT Law Wiki

Definitions[]

General[]

In duping (or a duping scheme) an entity tricks people into inadvertently or unintentionally performing potentially illegal acts.

Videogames[]

Duping refers to

the exploitation of any feature of a game to duplicate objects of value in a way which was not intended by the game provider. This may be compared by analogy to the counterfeiting of real-world money. Games are designed so that objects of value maintain a certain scarcity, but if a player can create more than the intended number of objects or create objects with less effort than intended, that player gains an advantage and all other instances of that object are devalued. Duping becomes cheating when players deliberately attempt to leverage it instead of filing bug reports.[1]

Overview[]

File-sharing[]

In the context of file-sharing, duping schemes can be particularly effective. Duping that causes infringing files to be shared inadvertently by young, new or unsophisticated users can make millions of files available for downloading. Indeed, new users of file-sharing programs tend to download many more files than established users, so duping that targeted new users could add a disproportionately large number of files to the network. Duping schemes that targeted young or unsophisticated users can also ensure that attempts to enforce copyrights against those infringers who upload hundreds or thousands of infringing files would tend to target young or sympathetic users.

References[]