Taxes, Second Life and Warcraft

An anonymous reader wrote in to say that there is "...a new law review article that explores the tax treatment of players in Second Life and World of Warcraft. The bottom line is that commercial activity that occurs in virtual worlds should be taxed the same as in the real world. But purely personal activity within virtual worlds should not be taxed."

Comments

What is this bitch smoking?

[zyl0x]

FTFA:

Games like WoW raise income tax issues, in part because items in them, though part of a "game," have real market value. In [my] paper, ... I discuss two of the issues: the taxation of loot "drops" and the taxation of exchanges within the game, such as the exchange of a virtual sword for gold.

I don't think I really have to say anything after that aside from "Wow, what an idiot!" Obviously she's unaware that something cannot have "real market value" when it's illegal to sell. It's like taxing people for existing because their organs and blood can be sold on the black market. This is what happens when people develop "professional opinions" about shit they know absolutely nothing about.