IGE Lawsuit Interview

The Escapist has conducted an interview with Richard Newsome, the attorney responsible for filing the lawsuit against IGE for "facilitating gold-farming" in World of Warcraft.
Q: How can you enforce this against a Hong Kong company?

A: You follow the money. Everything goes through the pipeline of Paypal and credit card companies. They have to go through legitimate institutions to further their conspiracy. So we can hit them in the pocketbook. We would take our injunction and enforce it against the payment companies so they can't do business. That's a real means to get them where it hurts. If we win, it's Armageddon for them.

And IGE will try to claim they aren't liable, that they are just facilitators. But as a former Federal prosecutor, I've handled this before. We had drug dealers say, "Hey, I never touched the drugs, so you can't touch me!" Although it's usually used by prosecutors in the criminal context, civil conspiracy is a recognized cause of action that lets us get past the shell game. IGE facilitates gold farming, and that's the conspiracy. And we think the evidence will prove to a jury that they're liable for it.