Is it an industry coming of age, or a legalopolypse that kills fun as we know it? Who know, although I suspect most of the doom and gloom is overstated.

First order of business: Blizzard sues gold spammers. The forum responses so far seem positive, with dissenters mostly arguing that said spammers should instead be dipped in honey and planted in an anthill near a bear cave. Still, definitely more positive than their last lawsuit.

Second order of business: a player is suing IGE for engaging in practices (gold farming) which devalues his gold earnings. Do they have a case? Arguably. I agree with Raph and Scott that the precedent is troubling, since any number of gold drop and dupe bugs could result in the company devaluing their own currency.

Third order of business: Linden Labs lose their suit vs. the guy they banned. Short form, they kicked a guy for exploiting, and he sued, using the fact that cash can be freely converted between real and virtual as a firm basis of the fact. Along the way, TOS agreements have come under intense scrutiny. A world where you’re not allowed to ban and you’re not allowed ot have rules declared in an MMO TOS is a world where I’m not particularly enthused about, but I’m sure lawyers will charge exorbitant fees to find more ironclad protections than Linden’s TOS allowed.

Fourth order of business: Eve Online seems to be about a millimeter away from everybody suing everybody. I don’t fully understand what’s going on here, but I can say that there’s a reason game companies don’t post their CS findings.

I am not a lawyer, so I won’t post my opinions on what I think could or shoudl happen. Everybody else has much more insightful things to say than I do anyway. Check out Raph, Scott, Matt, and Brian. The eggheads are also starting up discussion on the topic as well.