Renting out virtual space

 I was thinking about the idea of World of Warcraft as service as opposed to a space and how the whole idea seemed to blur the lines simply because the space in question is a virtual space.  This made me think about the idea of rentable access to spaces in reality that would be much clearer cut and under much less scrutiny in terms of rights of the users.

One example I thought of as a space in real life that can be rented for entertainment is snow planet, it shares many of similarities to the World of Warcraft but without the blurred lines of user/ownership rights.
 Skiers and snowboarders can gain access to the space of Snowplanet by renting it for an hourly rate or purchasing half year or yearly passes, in return Snowplanet provides a space to enjoy manmade snow and facilities to enjoy the environment including ramps, rails, boxes and those annoying rope pulley things to pull people to the top of the hill. This can be compared to users who access the World or Warcraft by paying for subscriptions, in return blizzard provides a virtual environment for users to enjoy.
The difference is when it comes to limitations; some are similar such as a snowboarders/skiers ability to perform tricks at Snowplanet being limited by the setup of obstacles as well as the rule of physics. World of Warcraft is limited by coded limitations that Blizzard has built into the game, framework that makes up gameplay. The difference is when it comes to “terms of use”, certain actions of the users/skier/boarders that are prohibited but are out of the hands of authorities,  actions that are punishable through suspension and banning from both spaces. Snowplanet’s rules are simply put in place to insure the safety of all users of the space where as the “terms of use” attached to World of Warcraft seems to be rooted in maintaining regulation of the space to maximize profit. The Terms of Use of World of Warcraft dictates that users do not in fact own anything to with the World of Warcraft, users only rent access to the Warcraft space, access that can be revoked at Blizzards own accordance. If one were to apply this rule to Snow Planet the idea would be ludicrous. It is like saying that Snow Planet owns the tricks a snowboarder performs at snow planet simply because they did the tricks within their space, doing nothing more than provide a space that people have used in their own way.
It seems that anything “virtual” is finicky when it comes to the idea ownership; the idea of whether or not someone can truly possess something that isn’t tangible is something that needs to be settled as virtual content continues to grow. Ultimately I feel as if more protection should be given those who devote their time to virtual worlds, the time and effort  a player puts into raising a characters level can be compared to the time and effort a snowboarder puts into learning new tricks and yet more value is put on sportsman than videogame players by mainstream society. It should be recognized that a 720 rodeo flip would gain just as much respect as a level 90 Orc to their respective enthusiast groups.