Redirect! Rebuttal! Re-another-thing!
My client is merely offering an in-game resource from an in-game resource. I admit, counsel's PL analogy was flawed, and I apologize for that (sad face to the jury). Perhaps a couple of more direct examples would be in order. If it pleases the court:
Scenario 1: Player 1 is solo'ing in Burned Wood, which is off of Felwithe this week (juries love old jokes). Player 2 is standing in the EC tunnel, retyping everything auctioned, and sending it in tells to Player 1. At the end of the day, Player 1 meets up with Player 2 and gives him some platinum for his trouble.
Scenario 2: Player 1 is looking for an item, say, a Rusty Dagger. Its the one upgrade Player 1 needs in order to complete his gear. Player 1 makes a post on the p1999 boards saying "WTB Rusty Dagger, 10k. Offering a finder's fee. Ask your non-existent friends to check their bags!" Player 2 knows a guy (Player 3) who has 2 handmade backpacks full of rusty daggers, and lets Player 1 know on the boards. Player 1, happy to finally be decked out, pays Player 2 his finder's fee and and then negotiates Player 3 down to 12k on his dagger (Player 3 really knows how to haggle).
These scenarios are of course not exact. The technical aspects are obvious different. These scenarios were devised to answer a specific question: is it ok to charge ingame plats for a service out of game.
In Scenario 1, aside from disproving the statement that this product only has "out of game" usage, we can see that paying someone to tell you what is being auctioned is a lot like paying for a log of the auctions.
In Scenario 2, we see that this service, when used out of the game, is not unlike placing a personal ad on the boards and offering a reward for finding it. Finder's fees in the EC Tunnels, while not common practice, have been done before, and most people would agree that there's nothing wrong with that (wait for jury to nod agreement). So paying for information about auctions out of game is already accepted.
Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, I must say that there is no "real world" advantage to this product. Yes, you can see things being sold in game while you're not in the game. Yes, that costs a modest in-game fee. But it offers no real world boon to my client. He earns in-game rewards, for information about in-game auctions, from people who must then go in-game to use the information for in-game transactions.
I'm a shoe-in for the Young Lawyer's Bar Association. ... Wait, that's
actually a thing?