The Republic of Korea's Proposed Ban on Virtual Goods

According to the Korea Times, next month the Korean Republic's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism ("MCST") hopes to ban the trade of ALL in game virtual items.  According to Kim Kap-Soo, the head of MCST's content policy division, "the main purpose of the games is for entertainment and should be used for academic and other good purposes."

The proposed law would prohibit users from using automated bot programs to collect items.  Violators of the new law would face a fine of up to 50 million won (about US$43,000, or £27,600) and a 5-year prison term.

The Korea Times

Also, this proposed ban comes on the heels of Blizzard's launch of its real money auction house in Diablo III.  At least in the US, users have spent upwards of $3,000 (US) on in game items to make them competitive on the inferno difficulty, the highest difficulty setting in the game.  With each sale Blizzard takes a small cut as shown below:

For Equipment (weapons, armor, accessories, and other unique items)

Transaction Fee (Real-Money Auction House): $1.00 USD per item / $1.00 AUD per item

Transfer Fee (when sending proceeds to PayPal or other authorized payment-service provider): 15% of amount being transferred
                    

For Commodities (gems, materials, dyes, pages, recipes, and other non-unique items)

Transaction Fee (Real-Money Auction House): 15% of final sale price
Transfer Fee (when sending proceeds to PayPal or other authorized payment-service provider): 15% of amount being transferred

Diablo III Transaction Fees

Although the ban has a good aim in the sense that it tries to discourage automated bot programs, which are always illegal, it will destroy the whole point of loot in dungeon crawling games.  Moreover, users will no longer be compelled to invest their time and money in such games.

The proposed law would threaten MMORPGs and other games that are free-to-play which depend on the value of their in-game items for their very existence.  No doubt large players in the industry will fight tooth and nail to prevent the passage of this ban.