Cengage Advantage Books: Business Law Today, The Essentials 11th Edition by Roger LeRoy Miller

Exercise 1

ADAPTING THE LAW TO THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
The Exploding World of Digital Property
Jon Jacobs took out a real mortgage on his real house so that he could pay $100,000 in real dollars for a virtual asteroid near the virtual Planet Calypso in the virtual world Entropia Universe. A few years later, he sold Club Neverdie, the virtual space resort he had constructed on the virtual asteroid, for more than $600,000. At the time, Jacobs was making $200,000 per year from players' purchases of virtual goods at the resort.
If the prospect of paying real funds for virtual property seems disconcerting, remember that property does not have to be tangible. Property consists of a bundle of rights in anything that has an ascertainable value and is subject to ownership-a definition that encompasses virtual property, including all the intangible objects used in virtual worlds like Entropia Universe and Second Life.
Digital Goods Have Value, Too
Digital goods include virtual goods, but more important, they include digital books, music libraries, and movie downloads, as well as domain names and expensively created Web sites. This digital property has real value. Some digital music libraries, for example, cost thousands of dollars.
Who Keeps the Digital Goods
The growing value of digital goods raises some legal questions. For instance, what are the respective rights of the creator/owner of a virtual-world Web site and the players at that site And what happens when a husband and wife decide to divorce after they have purchased virtual real estate or digital goods with real-world dollars The couple-or a court-will have to figure out a way to divide the goods. Property and divorce laws will have to adapt to take this changing world into account.
Critical Thinking
How might a couple who enjoy purchasing digital goods together avoid property division issues in the event of a divorce