Police in Japan have arrested a Chinese student for mugging people - online. The student is alleged to have used a network of software bots in the MMORPG Lineage II to attack characters and steal their items. The stolen items were then sold for cash via online auction sites. There's no question that something valuable was taken from the victims - but was it part of the game or not? And what will the consequences be for other MMORPGs with potentially valuable virtual stuff which allow PVP?
Reality is just going to get stranger and stranger until we work out the balance between the virtual and the real...
Interesting. I just looked up theft in the NZ Crimes Act:
ReplyDelete"220. Theft defined---(1) Theft or stealing is the act of fraudulently and without colour of right taking, or fraudulently and without colour of right converting to the use of any person, anything capable of being stolen, with intent---
(a) To deprive the owner, or any person having any special property or interest therein, permanently of such thing or of such property or interest;"
And I guess it might be technically theft (under NZ law) what the student did- not because of taking but because he cheated to do so.
That game needs an online police force, before the real police become too busy catching virtual criminals.
ReplyDeleteOh shit - as a kid I must have murdered thousands of extra-terrestrial vistors as they shuffled from side to side across my screen, only hoping to make a new home amongst my laser bases.
ReplyDeleteCan I claim self defence because they were shooting back - but what about the people in the bonus bus?
hmmm
ReplyDeletethis article predicted it...
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/wowworld.html
even if it's satirical, it has a good point. what to come?