Last month RockYou was hit by a breach of user security flowing from a hack which exposed more than 30 million RockYou account user passwords and other information. Now this month a class action lawsuit has been filed by one of RockYou’s subscribers over the security breach. The suit, filed in federal district court, accuses the company of “failing to use hashing, salting or any other common and reasonable method of data protection and therefore drastically exacerbated the consequences of a hacker bypassing its outer layer of web security.”

The Supreme Court of South Korea made a landmark ruling last week to allow the “virtual currency” or “cyber money” used in online games to be exchanged for real world cash. This appears to be the first such ruling in South Korea and will likely open new areas for the booming Korean online game industry.

The two accused individuals had originally been indicted in 2008 and fined by a provincial court citing a law banning the exchange of cyber money for hard currency. The provincial court decision was later overturned by a South Korean appellate court.

In the current Supreme Court decision the court rejected the prosecution’s argument that the appellate court was incorrect in overturning the provincial court decision acquitting two individuals who had been indicted for illegally selling 234 million won worth of cyber money and making nearly 20 million won profit (approximately $18,000 USD). The virtual currency had been earned in the wildly popular online game Lineage.

Justice Min Il-young said that trading game money for cash should be punished only in cases in which it is obtained by online gambling games such as poker or other card games and not games like Lineage.

All in all, it looks like South Korea is attempting to embrace instead of wipe out real world trading in “cyber money”. In fact, a court ruled in September of last year that profits from the trading of “cyber money” should be subject to 10 percent value added tax (VAT).

MindArk, the creators of Entropia Universe, recently announced that the Planet Calypso Crystal Palace virtual space station sold at auction for approximately $330,000. The winning bidder was a player who goes by the name Buzz Eric Lightyear. In the two week auction, Lightyear narrowly outbid other players willing to pay over $300,000 for the Crystal Palace. According to the World Records Academy, the Crystal Palace sale set a new record for the most expensive virtual item.

Since there is the ability for the real-world conversion of Entropia Universe currency into US dollars, Lightyear may likely use the virtual space station as a source of real income. As the space station’s owner, Lightyear will have the right to tax players who use the station. The virtual currency obtained from through taxing of other players can easily be converted into real world profits through Entropia Universe’s official bank.