This is a touchy matter, but with games that allow people to funnel real currencies into virtual property (beyond simply paying an incremental membership due), there should be legal repercussions for the violation of said "property" no matter how ridiculous we think it sounds.
Either that, or the property should be transfered back from the thief to original owner and the perpetrator could simply be charged with the myriad of normal software license violations.
koreman
· 2 years ago
This is no matter of any extra government regulation. At least in Holland that is. Somebody stole a password to gain unauthorized access into a user account. That is illegal in the Netherlands, called 'computervredebreuk'.
The teen will probably be prosecuted for unauthorized access and not for stealing 4000 Euro worth of virtual goods in a game world. He probably will be fined for his deeds. For more serious acts -like massive copyright infringement, industrial theft etc.- there are already more serious penalties.
lumas
· 2 years ago
'To do the deed, the teen is accused of stealing the victim’s account information to gain access to the “furniture.â€'
This crime is another case of hacking and identity teft. It has nothing to do with activities within the virtual world itself.
Kai
· 2 years ago
It seems though that different 'world' has different codes of conduct. When they convene it will certainly raise controversy. There's not and shouldn't have a definite answer as this is still the exploratory stage of this form of 'new media'. Unlike the IRC back in the days, real-life currencies are involved. With that considered, Habbo Hotel should maybe setup precautionary against the act of theft like the one described here.
Seraphimia
· 3 months ago
Existing property laws need to be updated to include virtual items when real currency has been used and companies running virtual worlds need to take more responsibility to safe guard their players when they're taking real money, other then this I'd like to see as little gov't interference as possible, as virtual worlds are a form of escapism from the real world, so more real world interference would simply defeat the purpose of gaming in these worlds to begin with.
All Comments
Either that, or the property should be transfered back from the thief to original owner and the perpetrator could simply be charged with the myriad of normal software license violations.
The teen will probably be prosecuted for unauthorized access and not for stealing 4000 Euro worth of virtual goods in a game world. He probably will be fined for his deeds. For more serious acts -like massive copyright infringement, industrial theft etc.- there are already more serious penalties.
This crime is another case of hacking and identity teft. It has nothing to do with activities within the virtual world itself.