Trading magic rings, blazing swords, enchanted breastplates and even the mighty hero itself is a major booming business on the internet generating short to a billion dollars sales volume - and countless criminals. Since the valuable commodities are in fact bits and bytes, elements of multiplayer online computergames, they are by contemporary law declared as property of the game's developer and hence every unlicensed trade is considered as theft. For years cyberanthropologists emphazise the "real" cultural and social value of game items for players and shake their heads in disbelieve about ignorant behavior shown by marketleader gamedevelopers. But now change became apparent! Sony Online Entertainment made up its mind and launched Station Exchange, the first platform for legal trade with Everquest game-items. By doing so SOE not only explores a very promising emerging market but also acknowledges the substantial value so called virtual items do have. Being excluded from legal protection and carrying powerful cultural and social relevance, virtual property does affect meatspace and abuse (like theft among players) lead to very real and concerning consequences. The question now is how "virtual" items will be integrated into legislation. Read more: german Spiegel

... Comment