Subscribe by EmailWoman arrested for killing virtual reality husband
October 23, 2008 by Mark O'Neill | 14 commentsBy Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
I don’t know what is making me more speechless – the fact that the woman is facing serious jail time for this offense or that the story made it onto CNN. “Obama and McCain? Who CARES?! We’ve got virtual reality murder HERE! Let’s go with this!”
So, as CNN is reporting, the 43 year old Japanese woman is facing 5 years in prison or a $5000 fine. What did she do? Well, she was playing a MMORPG called Maple Story and in this game, her character was happily married to a male character (who is a 33 year old Japanese man in real life).
Well once upon a time, the two virtual characters had a bit of a falling out and they went to a virtual lawyer and had a virtual divorce. The virtual husband went away thinking “oooh that stung a bit but it’s over now”, but the virtual wife thought “I’m so angry! I’m going to kill virtual husband!”
So virtual wife logs into the game as virtual husband (using his username and password) and kills his character. Virtual husband dies a horrible virtual death. 33 year old Japanese man logs on, finds his character dead, calls the real police and files a real complaint.
My first question is, if she logs in as him and kills his character, what exactly did she do to his character? Stab himself? Hang himself? Simply delete his account? If so, it’s not really a virtual murder then, more a virtual suicide. Sorry to nitpick there.
The woman has been charged with computer hacking offenses, but here’s my second question – according to CNN, she got the log-in details “from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married”. So if the man gave her the log-in details voluntarily, does using them later for devious purposes still constitute hacking? All she did was simply log in with what he gave her. To my mind, hacking involves breaking into the account by brute force when you don’t readily have the account details to hand.
We live in a weird, weird world….
- Real Consequences for Virtual Theft
- At Least There Wasn’t a Murder This Time
- Virtual Banker Embezzles Billions in Eve Online
- Virtual Medicine: Informed Consent in Second Life
I’m certain the law concerns intent and damage rather and how the log-in details were obtained. Not that I agree it is a criminal offence in this case. But I can see how it might constitute one.
super lame! oh those silly japanese folks. :)
This is ridiculous. It’s a damn game and he gave her the log in information. She didn’t hack the account. She logged in. She didn’t even steal the log in information. It’s one thing coming to your husband’s house in real life and destroying property; but its a digital character that can be re-activated.
What a joke. What idiot police officer made that arrest?
this is sooooo stupidly funny! lol.
This is really lame. If I gave someone my password that is not hacking, soo……
Ahahahahahhahaha thanks for posting this.. totally made my day!
further proof that some people take the web tooo seriously
they ought to be spaid and or nutered
In the UK, its an offence under the Computer Misuse Act, s3. It doesnt matter how she got the login details, if he didnt authorise her to use them, then she broke the law when she knowingly gained access to a system that she wasnt entitled to. She also ‘changed’ data, another offense.
Virtual worlds: now almost as weird as the real thing.
lol @ Chip
:lol:
ridiculous. he should have changed his password,but since he didn’t, he deserved to die for his stupidity. haha
well, this is a wierd twist. I believe it was the guys fault for not changing his password when the divorce was final, after all in real life don’t you change the locks on the doors and call the credit cards companies to have that taken care of before somebody goes on a spending spree? It also shows just how far somebody will go for revenge on both sides.
Another reason I’m never giving my password to anyone. But I can’t believe that she actually got arrested for “killing” his character. Can’t he just get a new one?