Sanctions - Is World of Warcraft Sanctions Compliance More Than a Joke?
by Elizabeth Gibson
[Editor's Note: GJIL is having a symposium on the issue of international sanctions - The Evolution of Economic Sanctions: Increasingly Financial, Multilateral, and Robust - on February 13, 2012. Therefore, each month The Summit will feature a post on sanctions. We encourage you to attend our symposium.]
However, in addition to the mystery of why exactly Blizzard Entertainment chose now to shut down Iranian accounts (sorry, no refunds), the situation has raised other interesting issues. Should interactive community games be considered a productive form of communication for sanctions purposes, and how much does all this matter in a world where savvy gamers quickly reconnected by rerouting their Internet through foreign networks?
