ExtraEagle

For me it is always sad, when previously innovative companies make decisions purely based out of fear of the unknown.

SlashDot reports that eBay will be delisting all Auctions for Virtual Property via Emergent Chaos.

Basically you won’t be able to sell game property as used in World of Warcraft and other such games.

Mr. Hani Durzy, speaking for eBay, explained that the decision to pull these items was due to the ‘legal complexities’ surrounding virtual property. “For the overall health of the marketplace” the company felt that the proper course of action, after considerable contemplation, was to ban the sale of these items outright.

Legal complexities really boils down to the fact that there isn’t much legal precedent to this and that eBay’s legal team don’t want to be there setting precedent anymore. The funny thing is that eBay and it’s subsidiaries PayPal and Skype all were founded by setting precedent.

Emergent Chaos comments:

Some virtual artifacts fall into the eBay ban rule, but might still be okay to sell. Some games permit the resale of objects, but you can claim the people aren’t authorized to distribute, because there’s no explicit authorization of them as a sales channel. It’s definitely a gray area, especially if we consider the first-sale doctrine, but stores are not obligated to sell things they don’t want, and if eBay wanted to stop the sale of used books and records, it would also be disappointing, but within their liberty.

I don’t agree with the “no explicit authorization of them as a sales channel” deal. When it is specifically prohibited to resell, such as World of Warcraft’s terms of service says it is, then ok fair enough. But an all out ban, because they don’t understand the market dynamics is wrong.

This is a set back to the world of virtual property as it removes a large central market place. However in away it may be a blessing in disguise as it just gives a boost to many of the smaller extra legal entrepreneurs who already have setup alternative markets.