About the Item Owner System

In short: there is none.
Internally, items are not being owned by anyone. But there is a system that determines who can control a certain item.

You are in control of an item if the item is in your inventory or on a ground that you own (estate or world). That means that only you can change or override flags of that item.

Example:

item_flags

  • Locked: The container or door can’t be accessed or opened by players that are not in control. Players that are in control still can access or open it.
  • Fixed: The item can’t be moved from the ground.
  • Only Me: Only effective, if Fixed is checked. Enables players in control to still move the item around.
The Only Me-Flag

The Only Me-flag is thought of as a temporary flag, that you can use to move your items around without having to fear about someone stealing them. You should un-check it once the item is on its resting place. That way you won’t accidentally reposition the item when accessing it.

Note on Stealing

You can lock your containers and doors all day long – if you don’t fix them to the ground, another player can just drag-steal them, get them to soil where he or she is in control and can then access them.

Item Decay

Items, that are on the ground and not fixed, will decay (be deleted) after a while. This is a technical standard measure in online games to prevent CPU/memory/network congestions.

It is never a good idea to have items, that you want to keep, laying around un-fixed!

Hope this helps,
-Rammy