Loic Le Meur

The buzz was even worse a while ago. Browsing through the archives of several internet forums shows that the price level was in the relatively high double-digit figures and people exchanged thousands of things for the invitation to GMail.
If I was in the GMail team I’d adjust the buzz by regulating the number of invites they send out – which is actually what they do. There is nothing wrong about selling invitations, at least as far as I can tell. If you have a good, even though it is not physical, and there is no clause in the GMail Terms of Service preventing the sale of it, I label it ‘perfectly legal’.

Mario, Google explicitely prohibits it: “[U]sers may not: [...] Sell, trade, resell or otherwise exploit for any unauthorized commercial purpose or transfer any Gmail account” (taken from http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/program_policies.html).
It is viral marketing indeed, but Google wants (and is right) to control its flow.

Google explicitly prohibits transferring *accounts*, not invites. This is what most people have concluded about that part of the policy.