So eBay has gone and dropped the HAMMER on online item and currency exchange over its service. Oh, don't act so surprised, this has been coming for months now. What is surprising is that while WoW, Everquest and basically every other MMO in existence is now black-listed from selling digital property over eBay, Second Life is in the clear. eBay spokesman Hani Durzey:

If someone participates in Second Life and wants to sell something they own, we are not at this point proactively pulling those listings off the site. We think there is an open question about whether Second Life should be regarded as a game

All well and good, except the reason eBay pulled all the other auctions says nothing about games, so whether Second Life is a "game" or not shouldn't mean squat. Their rules governing the sale of "Digitally Delivered Goods" say the following:

The seller must be the owner of the underlying intellectual property, or authorized to distribute it by the intellectual property owner.

That's it. That's what got eBay so jumpy, as the clearly vague terms of the rule aren't strong enough to govern the sale of what must be millions of dollars worth of property. But there's no mention of games in there, so why does Second Life get a free ride? Smells fishy to me. Luke Plunkett

eBay to exempt 'Second Life' listings from virtual items ban [cnet]

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