[MUD-Dev] Criminalize Community Volunteers?

[Greg Underwood]

Matthew Mihaly writes:

> On Tue, 12 Sep 2000, Greg Underwood wrote:
> 
> > The reality of the situation is that, until legal precident is set, virtual
> > items have no "real world" value, and can be used as payment for services
> > rendered w/o violating the non-paying part of volunteer work.  As you said
> > above, tho, once that goes to court and precident is set, that may change. 
> > It might be safest to just not reward volunteers with virtual items, and
> > stick to in game powers only.
> 
> Keep in mind that "real world value" has nothing to do with whether the
> law chooses to recognize this value. The items have real world value,
> period. In fact, it's not possible for them to have only in-game value and
> be desired by any player. Players are part of the real world and thus if
> they value anything, that thing has real world value.

Well, I'm not arguing about virtual items having real world value, just
whether the force of law can be brought against you.  If the law does not
recognize a "real world value" for an item, does it really matter if it has
a value?  You can do what you please w/o fear of any legal reprise
(moral/ethical issues aside).

I guess my argument is, "It doesn't matter if the courts don't recognize
it."  Not always a popular view, but practical.

> > 
> > Of course, who's to say in game powers don't have real world value too?
> 
> Presumably no one who has thought about it is saying that. Our business
> model is predicated upon game powers having real world value.

Again, I couch my argument in terms of legally recognized value.  Yes, at
some level everything has real world value, even "priceless" art, but for
all practical (read: court room) purposes, not everything has value.

AFAIK, no one has even suggested that in game powers have a legally
recognized value.

-Greg



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