When Is a Con Not a Con?

From the journals, here's some food for thought: Does a "crime" committed in an alternate world have any ramifications in the "real" world? Case in point is this article from the Gamers With Jobs site outlining the exploits of one Dentara Rask, a character in CCP's Eve Online massively multiplayer online world. According to the the article, Dentara Rask ran a Ponzi scheme within the game, amassing a large amount of on-line wealth (700 billion ISK), and then bragging about it. The question is posed: since a Ponzi scheme in real life is a punishable criminal offense, what about when it happens in a MMORPG? Assuming there are no rules within the game environment to prevent this, how would you go about punishing someone in the real world for something they did in an artificial one? And can they be punished?

Comments

Re:Not quite...

[Greyfox]

Couldn't you say the same thing about Magic cards? I can go out and print my own damn cards, but that wouldn't diminish the value of those ultra-rare Magic cards. They only reason they're ultra-rare is because the Magic guys made an arbitrary decision that they should be ultra-rare. You can spend a small amount on the Magic packs and hope you get lucky or you can go on e-bay and drop thousands of dollars on one card, eventually causing your friends, family and co-workers to stage an intervention.