In 2004 Julian Dibbell reported to the IRS that his primary source of income came from the sale of imaginary goods. A first-year law student who has written for Wired, the Village Voice, and the New York Times Magazine, Dibbell quit writing and attempted to earn a year’s living buying and selling virtual commodities within the world of Ultima Online, one of the earliest multiplayer online games. Slaying worgs and lizardmen by day and selling the monsters’ virtual loot on eBay by night, Dibbell set out on a quest to test the boundary between work and play—and made some serious real-world cash. “I tried to expand into other games, but [eBay] brought the hammer down,” banning the sale of virtual weapons, characters, and currency in 2007.

In nearly two decades covering Internet technology and digital media, Dibbell has written about online communities, the open-source movement in Brazil, and Chinese gold farmers, who play games as a job to acquire virtual currency to sell to other players. His subjects exist somewhere between virtual reality and real life; he writes that “meaning lies always in that gap.”

Last fall Dibbell embarked on a new quest, enrolling at the Law School. After stopping by D’Angelo Law Library to return a couple books from winter quarter, he spoke with the Magazine about property rights in the virtual world.

Read more at University of Chicago Magazine