High-larious story of a conversation between Julian Dibbell, an online gaming-wonk and PayPal, asking why virtual goods sold in meatspace but transferred in gamespace don't fall under PayPal's guarantee:
"OK, I just want to be absolutely clear about this now. So say I ship somebody tickets to a football game — is that covered?"
"Yes, because you've shipped them tickets. That's a tangible good."
"OK, then what if I ship them tickets to a virtual item?"
"What?"
"Say I write down a password that gives the buyer access to a virtual item — say I write that on a piece of paper or put it on a computer disk and ship that to the buyer and then give you guys the tracking number for that shipment. Would that be covered?"
(Thanks, mileena!)
