Two Fer

What better way to start June than for Forbes magazine to write about both Second Life and WoW in this online piece. Seems like both games are the target of significant lawsuits related to the rights of virtual property owners.
In the SL suit, a player who was kicked out of the game because he used an exploit to get land for cheap is trying to recover the value of the virtual property that he no longer has access to. The key comment from U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno: “While the property and the world where it is found are ‘virtual', the dispute is real.”
WoW's legal action came from the other side of a supposed injustice. It's class-action suit against IGE, claiming that their systematic online gold farming practice is devaluing the goods and currency of the other online players. The important thing I see coming from this is whether the ruling will uphold and legitimize the business of paying players to farm gold, or discourage it to the point where such businesses will be curtailed.
Both cases are being taken seriously by the U.S. legal system and are still pending. If I get a whiff of any progress I'll let you know here.