04-21-2005, 04:28 PM
It appears Sony is attempting to maintain ownership of it's intellectual property, at least in the fine print.
As worded in the article the sales area allows people to buy the use of an item or in game money. I'm sure the fine print somewhere will say Sony still owns intellectual rights to the items and that all sales will be at your own risk.
And anyone that works retail knows that "at your own risk" flies about as far as a sauerkraut and ice cream sandwich when you've got an angry, shortsighted, selective hearing, customer on the phone.
I wonder exactly how the sale will be implemented to prevent folks from being swindled. When you throw real money into an equation some people lose all sense of their moral compass and others insist on getting all they paid for and then some, or else! If you throw something out there for sale does it immediately disapear from your inventory and go into a "holding area" for immediate transfer to the final buyer? Or will the exchanges happen in game?
And a good point was raised about children and the service. I hope additional controls are placed on the system and you can't just charge all your purchases to the credit card the account is billed under without some additional verification required.
Which reminds me, you can call your credit card company and have it refuse any charges you don't want and then the burden of proof goes onto the seller to prove the buyer got the item and that it was an item the buyer actually ordered. Would the seller be the EQ2 player who is subletting the use of the item or would it be Sony who "owns" the item?
As worded in the article the sales area allows people to buy the use of an item or in game money. I'm sure the fine print somewhere will say Sony still owns intellectual rights to the items and that all sales will be at your own risk.
And anyone that works retail knows that "at your own risk" flies about as far as a sauerkraut and ice cream sandwich when you've got an angry, shortsighted, selective hearing, customer on the phone.
I wonder exactly how the sale will be implemented to prevent folks from being swindled. When you throw real money into an equation some people lose all sense of their moral compass and others insist on getting all they paid for and then some, or else! If you throw something out there for sale does it immediately disapear from your inventory and go into a "holding area" for immediate transfer to the final buyer? Or will the exchanges happen in game?
And a good point was raised about children and the service. I hope additional controls are placed on the system and you can't just charge all your purchases to the credit card the account is billed under without some additional verification required.
Which reminds me, you can call your credit card company and have it refuse any charges you don't want and then the burden of proof goes onto the seller to prove the buyer got the item and that it was an item the buyer actually ordered. Would the seller be the EQ2 player who is subletting the use of the item or would it be Sony who "owns" the item?
The Bill of No Rights
The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance. Robert A. Heinlein
The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance. Robert A. Heinlein