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.

Comments

It's funny and sad...

[VeNoM0619]

It's funny and sad...how imaginary pixels can run people's lives to do horrible things in a physical world.

Re:It's funny and sad...

[TeacherOfHeroes]

Its not as if real money is any more tangible when its sitting in a bank account.

Are things like wow gold really anything more than the electronic equivalent of gift certificates nowadays or banks that printed their own bank notes way back when? Surely the theft of either of those would be taken seriously - I don't see why this should be any different.

Re:It's funny and sad...

[A Pancake]

How did this get modded insightful?

For the most part religious people are brought up to believe their specific religion.

There is a rather large difference between being raised and indoctrinated to believe something all your life compared to taking a video game seriously.Even the most fanatic 14 year old still knows what he's playing is not real and deep down may know it doesn't matter.

This has nothing to do with virtual property and everythign to do with some brat teen having a sense of entitlement that preceeds his understanding of consequences.

The decision wasn't likely "Hey, this is so important to me personally that I need to use violence to achieve this goal" but more likely "Our whole group of friends plays Runescape and if we do this we can be the best and everyone will love us." The only thing virutal property or virtual worlds would have played into it is that the perps may have expected to get off easy if caught because no real property was stolen.

Not Punished for the Violence?

[GaryPatterson]

Surely the first case would have revolved around the attack by the two boys, using the knife, threats and all that. I mean, that's a pretty straightforward criminal act right there without going further to look at the proceeds of crime (data).

I know, read the article, read the article. It's early, and I'm skimming headlines.

Re:Not Punished for the Violence?

[Artraze]

I think the point is that the theft counted as part of the offense. In other words, rather than being viewed as assault, it was viewed as a mugging.

Re:Not Punished for the Violence?

[AlXtreme]

Surely the first case would have revolved around the attack by the two boys, using the knife, threats and all that. I mean, that's a pretty straightforward criminal act right there without going further to look at the proceeds of crime (data).

They were also charged for the violence, conditional jail-time of 1 and 2 months. Source for the dutchies.

Re:Not Punished for the Violence?

[anomnomnomymous]

The question was wether the virtual asset could be considered as a 'real' asset: And thus robbery could be charged.

Re:Theft is theft

[LandDolphin]

"How do you steal an item that doesn't really exist (a.k.a. virtual)?"

So, if I take your Credit card and charge it up, I did not steal anything because the physical money never exsisted?

Or how about MP3's? Do those have any value? There as virtual as anything in a game is. Just 1's and 0's like the items in a game and the money on your credit cards.

imaginary pixels..not the beating and menacing?

[Simonetta]

I've come to trust the Dutch as a serious and civilized people, so I suspect that it more the kicking, beating, and menacing with a knife that got these bozos punished; not the 'theft of imaginary pixels'.