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Musing on FinCEN guidelines

shevetshevet Member Posts: 1,667 Arc User
edited March 2015 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
A friend of mine is one of the furry deviants who infest Second Life, and she took time out from - well, we won't go into what she gets up to over there - to pass on a blog article about some of the legal implications of SL's "Linden dollars" virtual money system.

http://webspelunker.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/are-lindens-really-worth-anything-in.html

It contains a link to a PDF from the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, in which it sets out guidelines on the legal frameworks around virtual currencies. SL, apparently, is a Money Transfer Business under these guidelines, since SL dollars can be traded from person to person and converted back into real-world money.

STO, obviously, has its virtual currencies, but from the looks of it, it isn't a Money Transfer Business because Zen and stuff, once we've bought them, can't be sold on for real money....

... under the terms of service, that is.

However, reading through that PDF file, it occurs to me that various gold-selling spammers whom I won't name here (because we all see their blasted adverts, so they don't need any more publicity from me) are in the business of acquiring in-game currency and selling it to third parties in exchange for real money.

Which, as far as I can see, makes them Money Transfer Businesses within the meaning of those regulations.

I don't often claim to speak for anyone but myself... but, this time, I really do believe others will join me when I say HA HA HA HA HA Enjoy your metric shedloads of Treasury Department paperwork you spamming ****s!
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Post edited by shevet on

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    nicha0nicha0 Member Posts: 1,456 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    This is really nothing new, its been talked about for 15+ years and its the reason there aren't a lot of real economies in games.

    Most games you buy stuff, its an expense, your money is gone for entertainment. The minute you bring in a real economy, you purchase assets, inventory, you can be taxed by having items that increase in value if governments want to get sticky. Chances are they won't ever look into a casual person, but the people that enter games to do business are going to be targets, because they will attempt to not declare their income.
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    mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    nicha0 wrote: »
    This is really nothing new, its been talked about for 15+ years and its the reason there aren't a lot of real economies in games.

    Most games you buy stuff, its an expense, your money is gone for entertainment. The minute you bring in a real economy, you purchase assets, inventory, you can be taxed by having items that increase in value if governments want to get sticky. Chances are they won't ever look into a casual person, but the people that enter games to do business are going to be targets, because they will attempt to not declare their income.

    I think the interesting takeaway the original poster was interested in was that gold sellers / EC sellers could be considered engaged in money transfer business, which could cause legal repercussions. If they don't report their transactions correctly and don't pay their taxes, they could run into legal problems, and the extra work of making sure that you're doing "legal" business could eat up their profits.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
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    jbmaverickjbmaverick Member Posts: 935 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    But wouldn't US Treasury regulations only apply to companies that work within the US? I was under the impression most gold farmers were Asia-based. Sure, the STO servers are in the US, but they're doing all their business online outside of STO then performing an item transfer in-game.
    The universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is learning how to take a joke.
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    shevetshevet Member Posts: 1,667 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    The question of where, exactly, Internet-based companies "do business" is an... interesting... one. However, at least one of the more prolific spammers has its website hosted in the US, and that probably counts enough for the Treasury Department to send them some forms....

    The other interesting thing about the FinCEN document, though, was how (comparatively) clued-up it was about virtual currency transaction models. I was reading it and thinking to myself "that's SL's Linden bucks... that's EVE's PLEX... ah, now they're talking about things like Bitcoin...." The bureaucrats are clearly getting the hang of this here system of tubes.
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    cecil08cecil08 Member Posts: 163 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    What's more interesting to me is the fact that the OP specifically called out that their friend was a furry deviant despite the fact that it has no relevance to the topic at all.

    Any specific reason for that?
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    shevetshevet Member Posts: 1,667 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    cecil08 wrote: »
    What's more interesting to me is the fact that the OP specifically called out that their friend was a furry deviant despite the fact that it has no relevance to the topic at all.

    Any specific reason for that?
    You should see what she calls me.
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