video games o.O

[77]

HUH? :blink:

Dutch court convicts 2 of stealing virtual items
[spoiler]AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in a computer game and sentenced them to community service.

Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of "virtual goods."

The Leeuwarden District Court says the culprits, 15 and 14 years old, coerced a 13-year-old boy into transferring a "virtual amulet and a virtual mask" from the online adventure game RuneScape to their game accounts.

"These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law), so this is theft," the court said Tuesday in a summary of its ruling.

Identities of the minors were not released.

The 15-year-old was sentenced to 200 hours service, and the 14-year-old to 160 hours.

[/spoiler]

Online divorcee jailed after killing virtual hubby
[spoiler]TOKYO – A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.

The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

Players in "Maple Story" raise and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.

The woman was arrested Wednesday and was taken across the country, traveling 620 miles from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sappporo, where the man lives, the official said.

The police official said he did not know if she was married in the real world.

In recent years, virtual lives have had consequences in the real world. In August, a woman was charged in Delaware with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through "Second Life," another virtual interactive world.

In Tokyo, police arrested a 16-year-old boy on charges of swindling virtual currency worth $360,000 in an interactive role playing game by manipulating another player's portfolio using a stolen ID and password.

Virtual games are popular in Japan, and "Second Life" has drawn a fair number of Japanese participants. They rank third by nationality among users, after Americans and Brazilians.[/spoiler]

[Uncle Yuan]

Funny, in a sort of 'huh' way.  Given both the time and monetary investments that go into these things, I can't say I think such arrests are wrong.

[Alaric]

The headlines are a little misleading, I'd say. In both cases, it seems pretty clear that the people involved committed acts which I have no trouble considering illegal- coercion in the first, hacking in the second.

[stumpy]

I agree with Alaric on the second case. It looks like she was arrested for hacking, not for anything she did to the virtual husband.

But, the Dutch case sounds more ambiguous. It says he was convicted of theft, which could open up a real can of worms. If they were charged just with coercion, then I wouldn't care because that can be a real-world crime. But theft of virtual items? I mean, in some of these games, the goal is to steal stuff from other characters, some of whom are PCs (and not just NPCs). And, because of the internal economics of the games, those items can have value and people do trade them. So, is that theft indictable outside the game? Apparently:

"These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law), so this is theft," the court said Tuesday in a summary of its ruling.

How does one valuate a magical amulet to determine if it was petty or grand larceny? If governments start thinking such activities count as real-world theft, then where else will they interfere? Maybe slaying monsters without a permit? Using deadly weapons?

[Uncle Yuan]

The valuation of such objects is tricky, but we ascribe rights of ownership to all sorts of intangibles - mineral rights, stock in a company, intellectual property, right to emit carbon dioxide.  I agree that there are problems with the theft case, but I think the fundamental argument has merit.

[yell0w_lantern]

I'm still trying to figure out how someone can own part of the Earth.

[BWPS]

The headlines are a little misleading, I'd say. In both cases, it seems pretty clear that the people involved committed acts which I have no trouble considering illegal- coercion in the first, hacking in the second.

He gave her his password. That's not what I'd call "hacking" and definitely is ridiculous. Is death even permanent in Maple Story? Or did he just lose all his phat lewt?

[Panther_Gunn]

The headlines are a little misleading, I'd say. In both cases, it seems pretty clear that the people involved committed acts which I have no trouble considering illegal- coercion in the first, hacking in the second.

He gave her his password. That's not what I'd call "hacking" and definitely is ridiculous. Is death even permanent in Maple Story? Or did he just lose all his phat lewt?

Hacking, no.  Identity theft, technically yes.  Vandalism/destruction of "property" the "owner" had invested large amounts of time, money, and effort into?  A much closer fit, I think.  But that's just my common sense talking.  Feel free to ignore it like most of the rest of society does.  :P