X3 with John C. Dvorak
Guests: Andrew Eisner, Retrevo.com, Joseph Engo, IT specialist
Topic:
X3: Dutch Court Says Game Items Real Goods. Wow. John, Andrew, and Joe talk about a court case involving theft of virtual game items in the game Runescape.
This is not as strange as it may sound. It does take real work (time and effort) to create a virtual object. People get paid for their time as CG modelers in the real world. And models for CG are bought and sold on sites like Turbosquid.com. Architects buy objects, such as bathtubs for example, to use in architectural design software, such as Autodesk Revit. In the virtual world Second Life, you can buy and sell clothing, furniture, buildings and even real estate. Even with real estate, someone had to model the landscape. The real question is how wil ownership and theft of virtual objects be tracked? The world is changing rapidly and the courts, woth their slow miving bureaucracy, have little hope of keeping up.
When you deposit a cheque in your bank, what is its status, is that real money? Or is it just a number that gets added to your balance number?
I think it’s just numbers. There’s no or little gold backing it, and very likely no actual currency.
So why not the same acceptance of virtual goods?