....... Am I the only one who finds it funny that it's the Chinese taxing RMT?

Actually, that's quite amusing...

Communism and Gil, an interesting concept...

lol "hey there are people that are making money off of games they haven't made. lets tax the hell out of it!"

I smell the fall or at least the hindering of RMT. Go China!

Does this mean that IRS now stands for "Internet Revenue Service"?

Actually, I think it's appropriate... seems to me that if there's a way to make money off something, eventually some joker will figure out how and start doing it; why am I not surprised that if there's a way to tax that profit, some government somewhere will do just that.

"I'm the Taxman, yeaa-ah, I'm the Taxman! And you're working for no one but me..." --The Beatles, _Taxman_

But since the money earned from RMT is really Illegal , isn't this like taxing the Mob or Yakuza for thier ill gained wealth ? AND if they were to get tax money from these operations , doesnt that mean that China's government is contributing to RMT practice ? Legally speaking , i am not so sure this is as cut and dry as it seems . Any Lawyers in the House ?

Unfortunately RMT is only illegal in the game's policy and terms of service. Not illegal by any legal terms. Worst they can do is give you a slap on the wrist and or ban you from playing.

I was under the impression that SE held copyrights or some such thing(at least in America, not sure how that works elsewhere). If so, wouldn't that make it illegal for people outside SE to use their product for monetary gain? Like charging money to show movies without permission from whatever company holds the copyrights. If this isn't the case maybe SE should try to get legislature past that would make it illegal(again, at least in America). I'm betting that would upset lots of RMT's.

Japan And China are going to end up going to war over this! =P Just kidding but seriously, they should stop all Video Game Exports from Japan to China... That way, when people start smuggling them in illegally... they have something else to tax. ^^

Chinese farmers make far more real money from WoW than FFXI. Thank your stars SE has done -a lot- to curb what was the number 1 inflationary pressure on our virtual economies.

"VaprakLevel 30

3 days ago Point me to the section of Chinese law that says RMT is illegal."

Copy right laws are international .Shadea pointed out the most obvious . It's not just what country you're in when dealing with a multi-platform/multi-national enterprise such as the world of MMO games . still waiting for a Legal Eagle to weigh in c.c

RMT activity is illegal because it violates the ToS and Software License Agreement. The ToS and Software License Agreement are a form of contract between the user and SE. If SE wanted to pursue it they have every legal right. But they probably won't because international legal matters are always a pain.

Please refer to http://www.n..._law_99.html

It gives an outline of Laws and Regulations pertaining to contracts in the People's Republic of China. It's translated into English.