Who governs virtual worlds?
The beginning of the end of online gaming as we know it today.

This is very bad news indeed. Anytime a governing body starts to dip their toes in the private sector, especially areas that they have no knowledge of...bad things happen as a result. In this is the case of governing (placing legislation, laws, taxes, etc.) online gaming worlds such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest. I find it completely amusing that governments can't legislate properly over "real worlds", so what makes them think they can do any better with "virtual worlds"?

NEW YORK--Who governs virtual worlds?

As games like World of Warcraft, Second Life and EverQuest grow and develop more sophisticated communities, that question will become more and more important. So much so that a group of experts appearing Friday at the fourth annual State of Play/Terra Nova symposium at New York Law School here spent nearly two hours putting the subject in context.

When disputes arise over in-world fraud or avatars attacking avatars, for example, what law should prevail?

Despite what the designers of some virtual worlds might like to imply, the group agreed, such environments are not autonomous countries and are therefore subject to real-world national laws. But because lawmakers in countries like the U.S. have been slow to understand virtual worlds and the legal, social and economic issues that arise in them, the experts said, legislators have not yet addressed many of those issues.

Perhaps the biggest question is whether the trade in virtual goods--weapons, armor, clothing, buildings and the like, all of which have real-world financial value--is taxable. Because that is such an important question, a separate panel is planned for discussion on it Saturday.

But beyond taxation are plenty of legal issues, which the experts addressed at the event, largely an academic gathering where professors from a slew of top universities come to talk about the intellectual, legal and social issues around virtual worlds.

Read all about it here courtesy of news.com.com.

-Eric