1. “Someone stole my Property!” Do people have the same rights with virtual property as they do with tangible property?

2. My Virtual Claim to Fame Do you have “virtual” property that you value, anything facebook profile, MySpace, second life, WoW characters…?

3. What is Property? According to Webster property is “a quality or trait belonging and especially particular to an individual or thing.” According to Wikipedia it’s “any physical or “virtual” entity that is owned by an individual.” For each person the definition ranges drastically from individual to individual. The U.S. Constitution says nothing of what property is, just that no one can be deprived of it. So what is Property? This has been one of the most confusing questions through time.

4. Yours, Mine, and Ours, Before Property and ones rights to it has been a touchy subject throughout history.  Land  Money  Horses  Cattle

5. Yours, Mine, and Ours, After Now we have, Who owns what?  MySpace  WoW Characters  Facebook  Second life It is now company versus the player.  Company owns the code  Player put in the time and effort

6. Gold Farming  “Gold farming” is when a player attempts to acquire items of value within a game and then sell these items to others.  Sweatshops are rooms filled with computers and gamers Gold Farm the items they receive.  These items include but are not limited to:  Characters  Weapons  Potions  Spells

7. Character Marketplace Price: $899.00Price: $299.00Price: $719.00 Which one of these characters is being sold by a player and which ones are being sold Blizzard? In fact these all came from the same website claiming to be an independent reseller of the characters. The fact that these are sold via third party plays an important role for several reasons blizzard making a large profit of easily created characters selling scams but first and for most who has the right to sell it. Whose Property is it? The company? The Player?

8. This land is My Land!  Marc Bragg exploits second life glitch to gain property in game.  He claims that it is his land because he got it fair and square even thought the game's flawed auction system didn't negate the sale legally.  Bragg also laid claim to his virtual cash in Lindens, worth about $3,200 USD.  Linden Labs suspended Marc  Stating that he violated the ToS  Linden Labs officially supports a Linden-to-dollar exchange, and promotes the idea that players own their virtual property.  As of now there is no ruling on the case Mine

9. Social dilemma  Big MMO owners want Govt. Protection  Little Gamers want rights  Who is to say who gets What?  the companies can put up a disclaimer every time a player logs in to cover themselves from lawsuits  players can file lawsuits to try and protect their virtual property rights

10. Digital age Question  Do I have the right to this “virtual” Property?  Some think not:  “You don't really own your character; the game company does”  Others believe:  “My WoW bank and characters are very real to me for several hours most days.” Comments

11. What makes it someone’s Property  Time and Effort  Emotional Value  Belief in the value of the object  Payment to the MMO game owners

12. Copyrighted?  How is this different from copy right?  People feel that because they put so much time into their characters that they have some rights to it not because they sat down and coded them.  Their not using others work and passing it off as their own just using it and investing their time into it.

13. Ownership  Nothing is Free  How do you come to own virtual property?  Some say they paid for it  With cash  With time and effort  Companies say:  Our code  You paid for the use of the game  It belongs to someone

14. Discussion Questions  Should the government force companies to back every character, of certain level or higher, if it were to be “deleted” in massive system failure?  Should companies be held liable for player to player virtual property right infringements?  How did the owner of the property come to have a sense of claim to the virtual property?  Eg. Time and effort….