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Dutch Court Punishes Theft of Virtual Property
tsa writes "Last week, the Dutch court subjected two kids of ages 15 and 14 to 160 hours of unpaid work or 80 days in jail, because they stole virtual property from a 13-year-old boy. The boy was kicked and beaten and threatened with a knife while forced to log into Runescape and giving his assets to the two perpetrators. This ruling is the first of its kind for the Netherlands. Ars Technica has some more background information." In Japan, meanwhile, a woman has been arrested for "illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data" after (virtually) killing her (virtual) husband.
They kicked/beat/threatened him with a kife and the most important crime was IP-theft. wtf. Did I mention 'wtf' ?
Requiem for the American Dream
Erm... while I'm not too horribly offended over the theft of virtual (game) property, the fact that it was a matter of Aggravated Assault is a totally different matter.
Wait, the knife and beating happened in the real world, right?
Do not confuse "Freedom of Choice" with "Free Will".
It's funny and sad...how imaginary pixels can run people's lives to do horrible things in a physical world.
Imaginary?! What are these tiny dots I keep starting at while I type?! Someone must have slipped something into my drink! ;)
It does seem odd. To make that fair the judge should have
the bailiff beat the attackers with a night stick
and then sentence them to a virtual jail.
I'm in big trouble! I've commited murder in numerous games, used weapons of mass destruction in civilization.