Slashdot Mirror
Gamer Slain Over Virtual Property Dispute
cibe writes "A Shanghai online game player has stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber-sword. Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his "dragon sabre", used in the popular online game Legend of Mir 3, the newspaper said a Shanghai court was told yesterday. Qiu and a friend jointly won their weapon last February, and lent it to Zhu who then sold it for 7,200 yuan ($A1,129)." Update: 03/30 21:15 GMT by Z : More commentary available on Game Girl Advance.
Just fyi 7200 Yuan = $869.76 USD
Winner of The Second Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.
here is a link to a story with no registration http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/200503 30/od_uk_nm/oukoe_life_china_sabre
Verbal contracts are legally binding, but it's harder to prove in court. If XXX says that they lentt YYY to ZZZ, and then ZZZ says that YYY was a gift, then the judge has a hard time sorting out the circumstances of the exchange. If no other evidence comes to light, the judge will side with the defendant (plaintiff must win by preponderance of evidence in civil court). Then again, that's all US law, not Chinese. Contract law is pretty daunting stuff just if you go from one state to the other in the US, let alone overseas.