SL gambling question hits Korea
It wasn’t that long ago that we saw some Second Life players identifying the core characteristics that define, to their minds, what a metaverse title actually is. The list I saw once, but cannot find, included “users retaining ownership of IP” and “ability to cash out.”
But today, JoongAng Daily points out that not only is online gambling banned in Korea, but that all sorts of online businesses are:
In Korea, however, making money for commercial purposes through games is illegal. Revised laws that go into effect on April 20 have stronger restrictions on offline trade of cyber items.
Individual players can sell unwanted items offline, since that can be seen as a part of game-playing, but if they start making money for money’s sake, it becomes illegal,” said Kim Gyu-yeong, an official at the Culture Ministry.
No doubt the case will be made that Second Life and similar metaverses are not games, and that therefore the regulations should not apply, but I don’t know that this will make the Korean government any softer on the issue, given the Sea Story scandal.
2 Responses to “SL gambling question hits Korea”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
The ownership of IP and ability to cash out comments were mine, originally. I’m creating a new “Alternatives To Second Life” list in the next day or so actually… just putting the finishing touches on it now.
Linden Lab is finally going to “pay the piper” for trying to be clever on the gambling issue. If they had stuck with virtual real estate and even the buying and selling of virtual assets, they probably would have been OK, even in Korea. By permitting gambling and not managing the virtual sex industry (which the Korean government must not have run into yet or they would have been even more appalled), Linden Lab has severely limited its mainstream and international potential.
Conversely, the Korean government’s simplistic and draconian view of virtual assets is probably going to do more to hurt its online game industry than help.