Filed under: Features
Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq ("LGJ"), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:
We're seeing quite the economic turbulence in the United States as of late, and financial problems lead to two things: 1) further regulations on the issues that caused the problem; and 2) people seeking out new sources to exploit to make a quick buck. Plenty of people have written article upon article about all of the various economic tools that have been exploited to bring us to this point. I, however, would like to talk about one of those potentially exploitable areas people may move toward, that being the currencies that exist in virtual worlds and MMO games. I figure it's only a matter of time before what I'm about to describe occurs in one manner or another, which could very easily turn the tide of regulatory scorn from Wall Street to Azeroth or Second Life.I guess the best place to start is from something I hope most people are familiar with on a basic level: insider trading. In short, insider trading is when people with non-public information trade stocks to their benefit. It's regulated as a combination of a breach of fiduciary duty to the company or a misappropriation of information. In short, it's an unethical way to profit from inside information, and generally frowned upon (though some economists disagree with regulating insider trading). But insider trading is about stocks and securities, so where am I going with this?
Continue reading LGJ: Regulating Virtual Currency
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