Online Gamer Wins Back Goods From Virtual Theft
from the well-that-answers-that-question,-but-raises-plenty-more dept
There's been a ton of discussion in the last few months about how the law applies as it crosses over the real/virtual barrier. The biggest question seems to be whether or not someone can be charged for stealing virtual items in an online game. Especially in cases where such items can be resold for real money, is it really theft, or is it "just a game"? What if the whole point of the game is to attack others and steal their stuff? There isn't a particularly easy way to answer these questions, though anyone creating an online game might want to think about it, as their "terms of service" are likely to act as a de facto Constitution for the world. Over in China, though, the first decision has been made on such a case and a video game company has been told to return the goods lost to a player when someone else hacked his account. The guy tried to find out the identity of the hacker, but was denied, and then sued the gaming company for money. The court's ruling sounds fairly reasonable. It looks like they aren't making the company pay, but are telling them to restore the items the player lost.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Virtualy Stupid.
This guy should sue the manufactures to get back his " virtual life " because he obviously has none.
[ link to this | view in thread ]