A new bill has been drafted in the House of Representatives that could make bounties legal again in Redmont. The Legal Bounties Act, authored by Sen. zLost and sponsored by Rep. Incarnation__, is currently in draft stage and proposes a single targeted amendment to the Criminal Code Act.
How did bounties become illegal in the first place?
To understand the bill, you first need to understand how bounties ended up illegal. I spoke with Incarnation__ to get some context.
It turns out the situation is something of an accidental casualty of other legislation. Bounties were previously legal through an explicit clause that permitted the use of the in-game bounty system. However, when a recent bill was passed to criminalise contract killing, that clause was quietly removed. The result is that using the in-game /bounty command is now technically illegal – falling under the definition of incitement, an indictable
offence carrying a penalty of up to 30 penalty units and up to 15 minutes imprisonment.
“Since it’s dumb to go after everyone that uses the in game bounty, we should just keep it legal,” Incarnation__ told me. “Yes but atm it would be illegal and indictable.”
There was apparently a period in the past where an Attorney General actively pursued players who used the bounty system, which led to it being explicitly legalised at the time. That protection has since been lost.
What does the bill actually do?
The bill is short and to the point. It proposes amending Part X Section 1 of the Criminal Code Act – the incitement offence – to add a single exception: that incitement does not apply when expressed through the in-game bounty system. In full, the amended clause would read that a person commits an offence if they attempt to coax or encourage someone to break the law, unless expressed through the in-game bounty system.
That’s it. The bill doesn’t legalise contract killing or anything broader – it simply carves out a narrow exemption to restore the status quo that most players probably assumed was
already in place.
What happens next?
The bill is currently in draft stage, posted to the House of Representatives today by Rep. Incarnation__. It will need to pass through Congress before becoming law. Until then, using
the /bounty command remains technically illegal – though as Incarnation__ put it, the upper limit of punishment is quite high, around 100 penalty units, so the stakes for anyone caught
are not insignificant.
Whether the bill passes quickly or gets caught up in Congress remains to be seen. But for a server where bounties have long been a part of everyday life, the fact that they are currently illegal at all will likely come as a surprise to most players.
Takeawaymrcow
