Dutch Supreme Court Sees Game Objects As Goods

thrill12 writes "The Dutch Supreme Court ruled on January 31st that the taking away of possessions in the game Runescape from a 13-year-old boy, who was threatened with a (real) knife, was in fact theft because the possessions could be seen as actual goods. The highest court explained this not by arguing it was software that was copied, but by stating that the game data were real goods acquired through 'effort and time investment,' and 'the principal had the actual and exclusive dominion of the goods' — up until the moment the other guy took them away, that is."

Comments

Re:This seems bizarre

[Carik]

It could be that the judge wanted to tack on more time... since it looks like he could only impose community service (possibly because everyone involved was a minor?), it may have given him an option to impose a harsher sentence.

I could easily see that: "OK, the max I'm allowed to impose on a minor for a single offense is 100 hours, and that's for threats of violence. But you deserve more punishment, so what else can I do? Oh... you also stole something. That's another 44 hours. If I could think of anything else to add, I would, so count yourself lucky, kid, and don't do it again."

So...

[forkfail]

Jail time for ninjas?

Import tariffs for overseas gold farmers?

Sales tax on the WoW auction house?

Income tax on raid loot?

Re:MOD PARENT DOWN... oops, it's the story

[mwvdlee]

I rarely see any of my monthly wages in cash, it just gets added to the "total" number in my bank account.
In practice, money isn't much more tangible than in-game goods and most would say taking away money is theft, even if it was taken from a bank account.