You make a good point. It's not against the ToS. You can buy gold, and Blizzard cannot ban or suspend your account for your part in that action. It's just considered a bad idea because you're facilitating someone that is violating the ToS. Without you, they couldn't do it. You're also putting your account at risk which requires Blizzard to hire more people to recover your account.

wow... could you be more wrong.

There is a specific section right in the Terms of Use that it took me all of 30 seconds to find (read the last sentence for clarification):

Ownership/Selling of the Account or Virtual Items.
Blizzard does not recognize the transfer of World of Warcraft Accounts or BNET Accounts (each an “Account”). You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void. Blizzard owns, has licensed, or otherwise has rights to all of the content that appears in the Game. You agree that you have no right or title in or to any such content, including without limitation the virtual goods or currency appearing or originating in the Game, or any other attributes associated with any Account. Blizzard does not recognize any purported transfers of virtual property executed outside of the Game, or the purported sale, gift or trade in the “real world” of anything that appears or originates in the Game. Accordingly, you may not sell in-game items or currency for “real” money, or exchange those items or currency for value outside of the Game.

well... before I get railed on, let me say after further examination I can see what you are stretching at, that the sentence says you may not sell (does not say you may not buy).

If you can prove that somehow absolves the buyer in the transaction, then I applaud your ability to pick at trivialities.

@Golis

This is precisely my point. Having read the EULA front to back it is never stated that "buying" virtual currency is an infraction.

This leads me to wonder why? Well put on your tin foil hats for this one. Blizzard only stands to gain more money by randomly banning gold farming accounts. A player who buys gold and is banned is less likely to come back to the game. However, a gold farmer is very likely to purchase a new account once banned. This adds up to more money in the pockets of Blizzard. Each time Blizz sends out a ban wave they're effectively forcing the farmers to purchase (or steal) new accounts. One hand feeds the other. Seems like simple logic to me.

On a side note, I'm also confused as to why anyone would think the act of buying gold somehow compromises account security? How does a farmer knowing your character name in any way make him able to hack your account? One doesn't need to hand over any information outside of that. I can understand a powerleveling service doing so, but not gold buying.

I'm not condoning the gold trade. Just playing Devils' Advocate.

Looks like it's against the ToU to me. From Golis' quote:

"You agree that you have no right or title in or to any such content, including without limitation the virtual goods or currency appearing or originating in the Game, or any other attributes associated with any Account."

You have "no right or title in or to" gold bought with cash. That doesn't explicitly say "... and if you get it, you'll be banned", but if you have something on your account you have no right to, then what do you think happens? (To put it more exactly, you have "no right or title in or to" anything on your account. Blizzard owns it. They could ban you for rolling need on an item you don't really need. It would be very bad PR so they won't do it, but it would not be illegal or a breach of contract. So they don't have to specifically enumerate "no gold selling... and no gold buying either, dumbass", but anything Blizzard doesn't like is against the Terms of Use.)

But if that's too broad for you, fine, how about this?

"Blizzard does not recognize any purported transfers of virtual property executed outside of the Game, or the purported sale, gift or trade in the “real world” of anything that appears or originates in the Game."

"Trade" includes both selling and buying. Seems straightforward.

@Cyrus

"Blizzard does not recognize any purported transfers of virtual property executed outside of the Game, or the purported sale, gift or trade in the “real world” of anything that appears or originates in the Game."

I'm hearing what your saying about Blizzs' ownership of accounts. They can do whatever they see fit under any circumstance.

Now to be clear, in lawyer speak "does not recognize" is by no means stating these actions are punishable in any way. It's simply a safety measure to remove themselves from any action a player may take outside of the game when dealing with currency sale. If a player were to buy gold from a third party, Blizz is in no way connected to, or responsible for anything that may or may not take place before during or after said transaction.

"You agree that you have no right or title in or to any such content, including without limitation the virtual goods or currency appearing or originating in the Game, or any other attributes associated with any Account."

This means that you do not own your character, or the gold itself. Blizzard can take it away from you without reason or ban you. This does not mean you cannt effectively sell gold. They mention specifically above that you cannot sell an account, but they do no afford the same language when it comes to currency.

Why? Because it's been tried before. Selling vendor coupons without their consent is illegal. Selling the labor to cut the coupons from a newspaper, and then shipping the coupons to the buyer is legal.

Case in point, you're paying for their labor in farming (which Blizzard does not own) and getting gold as a gift in addition to their labor.

That's often the same argument used by minors in some states when they get caught buying alcohol - that the statutes only say the SALE of alcohol to minors is illegal. It's been about as successful as a liquor store saying that since sales are contractual in nature, i.e. mutual agreement, benefit, consideration, etc. and that minors cannot enter into valid contracts, that a sale did not actually occur. lol