Subscribe by EmailReal Consequences for Virtual Theft
October 25, 2008 by Casey | 4 commentsby Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
On the heels of the story about a woman “killing” her virtual husband, here’s another reminder that what happens in virtual worlds doesn’t always stay in virtual worlds.
The story is that one teenage Dutch boy forced another teenage Dutch boy to hand over his virtual property in the game Runescape. From what I can tell, this happened much like any other mugging. Except instead of “I’ll beat you up if you don’t give me your wallet,” it was “I’ll beat you up if you don’t log into Runescape and transfer all of your loot to my character.” Apparently the victim called his bluff, because only after he was strangled and kicked in the head did the attacker get the login information to transfer the goods himself.
Now that this case has gone to trial, it’s set some interesting precedent in the Netherlands: stealing virtual goods is a crime. According to the judge, “goods don’t have to be material for the law to consider them stolen.”
This issue hasn’t been dealt with directly in US courts yet, since the famous Bragg v. Linden Labs (in which a Second Life landowner sued when Linden canceled his account without compensating him for his land) was decided on contractual grounds rather than the court having to make any ruling about the property itself. And of course, Second Life is a bit easier to track when it comes to “real” value since players can sink real money into into property and goods there. Meanwhile, virtual goods in games like Runescape and World of Warcraft can only be valued by the player’s time, or maybe how much the lot might fetch on eBay.
The judge in the Netherlands apparently found the theft of one mask and one amulet in Runescape was woth a sentence of 160 hours of community service, or 80 days in jail (the lawsuit in question dealt only with the theft, not the physical assault). I highly suspect that the kid will be taking community service, if only because he can’t go that long without playing Runescape.
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Ok, but what about the bigger issue, regardless of what the threat was about or for, one person threatened another with physical violence (and actually carried through on that threat), in anyones eyes that’s the real crime and failing to mention the judges verdict on that account (or even if the judge bothered to take the assult into account) is just sensationalising the irrelevant and trivialising the actual.
What about the person who got beat up for standing up to a bully, hopefully his assult was taken seriously and the appropriate sentance awarded to the attacker. Bullies, thugs (and anyone else who preys on another person for any kind of gain) are the lowest form of scum! Let’s not trivialise what actually happened here!
Jon…
I got the impression from the news articles I read that the assault was handled in a different trial. I highly suspect that he got some jail time on top of this. I’m not familiar with how the Dutch legal system works, but it almost seemed like the virtual theft issue was handled in a civil court.
As a MMOer, everything I have ever seen is that “your” property in the game (items, currency, ect…)wasn’t really yours, but the provider of the game. You are “leasing” the account for the monthly fee of $xx.99/mo in order to access the game content. So how can it be theft if it is still in the hands of the true account “owner”?
But I would have to agree with poster #1 (Jon) that the real crime was the assault & battery. As for the “stuff” that was taken, its not real.
If you want to value your time on a MMO your time isn’t worth very much @ $15/mo ($.50 a day/how many hrs a day you play)
Well, that’s definitely how the game company sees it. ;) But it’s really not so cut and dry… there are numerous law review articles debating just that issue!