It's not illegal to buy/sell plat or characters in Everquest. At least not in any criminal sense. SOE could go after someone for a breach of contract (provided they could prove the EULA constituted a legally binding contract) but it's doubtful they'd get much in the way of damages.
eBay stopped allowing plat/character sales because Sony is a big company with lots of money and lawyers and eBay, despite having money and lawyers themselves, figured it was easier to smile and nod and keep Sony happy rather than risk going to court over it. After all, eBay makes the majority of its money on things other than plat/char sales.
Folks like IGE and Yantis (now one and the same), however, make all their money off this stuff. They know that the chance of SOE taking them to court is minimal. They know that the chance of the court saying IGE owes SOE a bazillion dollars is even smaller. The chance of convincing some jury that your little online virtual dragon-world is being messed up by some other guy and he should pay you money for it is laughable.
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.