Property in online games

The Philippine online gaming industry, dominated by massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) such as Ragnarok Online, Ran and World of Warcraft among others, has been experiencing stellar growth since the introduction of the first MMOG in the country in 2003. It was already a Php150 Million industry back then and according to the International Data Corporation, it has an estimated 40% increase in subscription, annually.

Unlike PC-based games, which are extremely prone to piracy, online game software are practically given away by their distributors, one need only download it from the designated website or obtain a free game CD. However, in order to play the game, users have to buy prepaid game cards in order to enter the virtual community or to buy the virtual items necessary for the game. These MMORPGs enable Filipinos from all walks of life to interact with one another as well as with individuals from other countries in a virtual community.

But the existence of this virtual community or society raises its own set of legal conundrums, which, sooner or later, will have to be dealt with in order to facilitate the continued growth of the booming Philippine online gaming industry. One need only hear an online gamer talk about earning Php 5,000 from the sale of the virtual sword of one of his MMORPG characters to get an idea of one of these issues.

Simply put: Is virtual property, property, in the legal sense? If it is, who then is to be considered the owner of such property, the owner of the server or the owner of the gaming account, in the case of MMORPGs. If someone hacks into an online gaming account and robs an MMORPG character of items, will the owner of the account, who has bought dozens of prepaid game cards and spent numerous sleepless nights online in order to obtain the virtual items, have a remedy in the law?

Unfortunately Philippine law is relatively lacking in terms of addressing the issue of such virtual property and its ownership and providing for the appropriate remedies in case of violations, despite the fact that the buying and selling of such virtual properties is becoming somewhat of an underground economy.

But online gamers need not despair, as Taiwan and Korea, whose laws already consider virtual property as legal property, have an abundance of pertinent statutes and caselaw to guide us. All our legislators have to do is look to them for examples on how to create our own laws. So to our legislators the game and the challenge is on …

SOURCES:

http://commercecan.ic.gc.ca/scdt/bizmap/interface2.nsf/vDownload/ISA_1098/$file/X_4893636.DOC.

http://www.bu.edu/law/lawreview/v85n4/Fairfield.pdf