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Police Investigating Virtual Furniture Theft
krou writes "Finnish police are involved in the investigation of up to 400 cases of theft from virtual world Habbo Hotel, with some users reporting the loss of up to €1000 of virtual furniture and other items. Users were targeted using a phishing scam that used fake webpages to capture usernames and passwords. There is no mention as to whether or not the thieves made off with the bath towels, gowns, shampoo bottles, and soaps."
There is no mention as to whether or not the thieves made off with the bath towels, gowns, shampoo bottles, and soaps.
What good are towels if the pool's closed?
If someone stole your shares or "those bunch of digits" in your bank account, it's still theft. So it's the same in this case.
Some years back someone in China lent someone his virtual sword and the borrower refused to return it and actually sold it (for quite a bit of money), so the lender went to the cops but they laughed at him, so he took matters into his own hands and killed the thief. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4397159.stm )
Not saying it was right for him to do that, but it's quite understandable. The sword was worth a lot of money at market prices (USD1000), and probably worth even more to the lender since he didn't want to sell it. I'm sure people get killed for far less than that in China (or many other places).
p.s. reminder copying is not the same as stealing. These people lost access to stuff.
"We have done five home searches in five cities in Finland," he said.
Unfortunately, the virtual furniture was nowhere to be seen.
I can only feel bad for the people of habbo hotel, losing their fake furniture that they paid a totally reasonable price for. I wish the for the police working on this case to catch those evil criminals, and of course for their safety. It's a dangerous job catching internet tough guys, and I can only hope that these police return to their families in one piece.
Feel free to mod me down, just know that unlike some Anonymous Cowards I'm not afraid to express my views as myself.
Ok, if someone takes a physical object from you without your consent, that's theft. If they break into your house to do it, that's B&E + theft.
If you have an online account with "things" that are sellable/transferable out of it, is taking those "theft"? Obviously the B&E part is some form of computer trespassing, etc, but do the items exist in such a fashion to be considered "missing" if stolen?
I get they are no longer accessible from your account, but if they can only be viewed through "the web" do they really exist?
If I buy a physical book off amazon, I get a physical thing. If amazon goes the way of the dodo, I still have my book.
If I buy a virtual couch from VirtualCouchGuys.com and they go out of business, my, as well as everyone elses couch, goes bye bye. Just the same as a cell phone service/plan would go bye bye if the company simply folds and turns out the lights.
So wouldn't virtual goods be services then? It is a service to log in and see a blue pin striped couch more than it is an item. But what about the whole "theft" portion? How can you "steal" service? The only thing I can think of is akin to stealing bandwidth through WEP Wifi or cutting someones phone line and splicing yours into it or doing the same with cable.
You're not stealing a physical object, you're stealing a service. I guess that's the only rational way to go after "virtual furniture" thieves. But, now, if I steal cable, can the cops arrest me? Apparently, yes. The actual charge appears to be "unauthorized use of computer, cable, or telecommunications property" which seems to fit with virtual items as well (correct me if I'm wrong).
Now, I know this is in Finland, but it seems it would apply here in the States too.