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

Re:It's funny and sad...

[smooth wombat]

So if i beat the crap out of you till you *give* me your PIN number, I then have permission to take the money?

According to Antonin Scalia, police can do just that so why not allow the average citizen to be able to do the same? In fact, Scalia has said that it's perfectly acceptable for police to smack someone around to gain information because it's not punishment for not giving police the information they want. So again, if it's good enough for the police, it's good enough for the average citizen.

Ok, this case doesn't take place in the U.S. but don't worry, I'm sure something like this will turn up eventually.