The Market in Unrealestate

On his weblog, Julian Dibbell chronicles his life as a seller of virtual goods and properties from Ultima Online. He claims that “On April 15, 2004, I will truthfully report to the IRS that my primary source of income is the sale of imaginary goods — and that I earn more from it, on a monthly basis, than I have ever earned as a professional writer.” Dibbell is a the author of My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World, and has been writing essays on digital culture since 1993, several of which are available on his site.

Also on this topic, an abstract of the talk Dibbell presented last week at the State of Play conference in New York: Owned!: Intellectual Property in the Age of Dupers, Gold Farmers, eBayers, and Other Enemies of the Virtual State and another, more substantial piece, Virtual Property by Dan Hunter and F. Gregory Lastowka.