Besides. After the shelacing the US got in the last olympic games by the chinese, I think legislators are going to be strongly inclined to thumb thier noses in that direction for a good, oh, lifetime longer ;)

Just to be clear as well, I know our system is FAR from perfect and I don’t want this discussion to turn into a comparative of the two legal systems and get way off topic. I just wanted to clarify my common sense comment so it wasn’t obvious I lacked the same =)

On a more related note to the discussion, the CDN legal system doesn’t really save us from the issue if indeed it becomes one in the USA, as we will still be playing that content which would have to be changed to protect from liability. Sure, we can safely make our own CRTC content controlled MMO’s (Don Cherry as a raid boss? the Little Mosque on the Prairie MMO?) so regardless of where the law has the impact, Gamer Nation will be effected as a whole if the companies involved are forced to change.

Ah but you have that wonderful “Human Rights Commission” now which is nothing but a tribunal with barely any laws. So when someone loses in regular courts, they can take you to the kangaroo court and have a 100% conviction rate. Seriously that tribunal has to be the biggest threat to freedom Canadians have seen in awhile. I hope you can trash it soon.

Overlawyered was a fun site to read. I should have clarified, I am Canadian, and our system doesn’t allow for the type of outrageous suits our American friends see daily. That site is a perfect example of why we aren’t moving that way. The loser typically pays in Canada, so it avoids a lot of frivolous lawsuits. I have been the victim of a frivolous multimillion dollar lawsuit, which we won, due to a large dose of common sense. Lawyers for the most part are still mostly human in Canada. Of course, some Lawyers are the ones trying to change the system to more American-like as they are really the only ones who profit consistenly from it, but it won’t happen.

At least you know a safe haven if your MMO gaming turns you all into criminals- you can come stay at my place. Bring a sleeping bag.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1105364112559

So our best hope is the corruptive influence of Microsoft “campaign donations”? yay. And does MSFT or Blizzard have our best interests in mind? Or their own?

Neither party, and neither major presidential candidate, seems to me they put freedom ahead of controlling us if it’s for a good enough cause. We’ve all seen cspan broadcasts of various committees when they talk about games (or even other areas we might be knowledgeable about) they have no idea what they are talking about for one, and for two special interests groups and lobbyists write the wording of the laws. Often congress just reads summaries and relies on their staff.

Perhaps the best solutions to head off any legislation would be to change the games. Provide RMT themselves, either buying gold or buying “boe” items and maybe even kitted/specced characters for a fee. This would reduce out of game trade. Certainly they must always disallow avatar trading and any idea of “ownership” of avatars. Maybe eliminate game cards so that avatars can be traced to particular people, so that the company can make sure the avatar is not traded (such as flagging name or credit card changes, etc).