Arrested For Deleting Online Game Weapons

from the the-horror dept

Thu, Jan 20th 2005 10:05am — Mike Masnick

In the past, we've written about how unclear the law is as it relates to virtual worlds such as online games. How do the laws of the real world that you live in impact what happens within a virtual world? For example, if stealing from a character is part of the game, but virtual goods can be transferred outside of the game for real money... the law can get tricky. Someone could claim that even if stuff was stolen in the playing of the game, it cost real economic value. Over in Japan, a woman has been charged with a crime for breaking into an ex-boyfriend's online video game account and deleting various weapons he had collected. She's being charged with illegal computer access, for logging in as him, but you have to wonder where the line gets drawn. What if she, in the character of the game, had managed to take away the same items she deleted from within his account? This case is a bit more clear cut, but there are going to be a lot more cases where the line between the laws of the real world and the terms of service of the game itself get very blurry.

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

7 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Steve Mueller, 20 Jan 2005 @ 2:44pm

It Seems Obvious
It seems obvious to me. If you get the weapons in the context of the game, that's part of the game and legal (even if you, say, hire a bunch of other gaming characters to help get those weapons). If you hack into the game or use somebody else's account without permission, that's a computer crime.
A more interesting scenario would be if you exploit a bug in the game to get those weapons. For example, if there's a God mode for testers but you find out how to enable it for your character, then use that to steal the weapons, is that a crime? If so, does intent matter? If you accidentally invoked the bug, that may be one thing, but if you knowingly used a cheat, that could be another.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Spunky, 22 Jan 2005 @ 7:10am
  
  Re: It Seems Obvious
  Um, this is just way to sad.
  
  I can accept that a crime may have been committed *if* she illegally hacked into his account, but other than that anything done in a game is just that - a GAME!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Jon, 21 Jul 2010 @ 10:13pm
    
    Re: Re: It Seems Obvious
    Fuck you I lost the GAME.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
lol, 4 Sep 2006 @ 3:21pm

and lol
bunch of weirdos lol....wow good revenge haha
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
JRawkus, 25 Jan 2008 @ 12:56pm

The problem these guys face is that, in the eye's of the law - everything that is obtained in the game is the intelectual property of the game designers - and can therefore never be owned by the play. It's similar to buying computer software - you dont actually buy the software - just a license to use it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Michiel Drenth, 29 Nov 2012 @ 12:56am

Bizar situation
It had to come to this one day... Like stated here before, breaking into a computer is really illegal and they have a case with that. I do get the case about selling virtual weapons in the real world, but nevertheless this is really bizarre!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
chris, 29 Mar 2013 @ 1:06pm

Oh myy
Wow, this is unbelievable!
Unauthorized access to someone's account is definitely a crime though...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]