Real Police Cross Over Into Virtual World Again; Arrest Teen For Theft Of Virtual Furniture
from the bad-precedent dept
Just a few weeks ago, we pointed to a lawsuit involving two Second Life users, with one accusing the other of "theft." We pointed out, as we have for quite some time, how problematic it is when real world laws are applied within a virtual world. The point of a virtual world is that anything is possible -- and putting the constraints of the real world on those worlds not only seems counterproductive, but potentially dangerous. That Second Life lawsuit was between two users, but over in the UK, a similar situation has gone even further: involving the police.The police have arrested a teenager accused of "stealing" virtual furniture from another player in the virtual world Habbo Hotel. Again, it's true that the virtual furniture has real monetary value, but it's the sort of thing that should be taken care of within the framework of Habbo Hotel. The folks who run the world should be able to deal with the situation, as they are the world's de facto government. If you don't think this is a problem that's going to get more and more problematic, then just start to think through the scenarios of what happens next. What happens in an online virtual world where "theft" is designed to be a part of the gameplay? Can players then call the real cops when they lose in the game? That situation may be a bit more black and white, but many of these virtual worlds are designed to be defined by the users. So what if the users decide that "theft" is a part of the gameplay? What if some users decide it is and others don't? Bringing real world laws and real world cops into virtual worlds is guaranteed to cause problems.
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Filed Under: digital goods, theft, virtual worlds
Companies: habbo hotel
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Oh dear...
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Gambling Laws
Damned if you do, etc.
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Then don't use real money
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Re: Then don't use real money
an infinitely duplicat-able (yes I know it's not a word) good, product or service
and spend such money in:
an environment with NO retribution for stealing other peoples said goods, products or services
then I have 2 and a half words: TOO F***IN BAD
until the developers decide to PREVENT the goods from being stolen, then don't buy them. period.
How can police have ANY sort of jurisdiction anyway? I don't get it...do the police LIVE in second life? Is there a court there?
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Re: Re: Then don't use real money
so...
until the gas station's manager from down the street decides to PREVENT his goods from being stolen... i should b ok... right?
no...the developers do take security measures...but when ppl steal online, its called scamming, or hacking...
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Um, no, trying to have a life in a virtual reality because you can't cope with real people in real life is guaranteed to cause problems. The way things are going, we're going to end up becoming a society of anemic (or obese), pale-skinned nerds that have no real life, accomplishments, social skills, or real friends to speak of. If it remains an occasional form of entertainment, then no problem is that we are way too willing to embrace something like this as a lifestyle, which I think will prove to be very unhealthy in the long run.
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Disagree here
In the United States, the scammer would have easily been charged with violations of any number of laws, perhaps under the DMCA, for example.
Absolutely Habbo Hotel did the right thing here by bringing law enforcement into this. If they didn't, at the very least, Habbo Hotel could have been held liable if the scammer was sued. By bringing law enforcement into it, Habbo Hotel covers their liability and creates a legal record that they participated, in good faith, for their customer to recover losses.
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A bit over the top
The fact that it is data owned by people, and bought by people. If you take away the idea that its 'furniture' in a 'game', and realise in real life that it is purchased data, then yes, it can be easy to see the police getting involved. The same thing happends if someone removes data off someone elses computer, right?
However, in the end, its a game, and has no real life implications. In this case, the user that did the stealing can have his/her account taken away, and the bought 'goods' given back to the owner.
Again, it may not be as simple as just giving the 'goods' back (hard to find the original owners of each item etc), and would be a lot of extra work for the operators of Habbo. It probably is in the best interests of Habbo to crack down hard on these people in order to reduce the number of these instances.
Which ever way you go on this, Mike is right; how far this could go is kinda scary. The easiest way is to (as sonofdot says) remove the money aspect, unless you can get a compleatly hack-proof system (unlikely).
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Re: A bit over the top
im goin to steal ur computer so u can stop writing...and if u EVER say anything to anyone...i'll give it back...and the police cant do anything about it...its just that simple...right?
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I'm somewhat curious as to what exact law the police are prosecuting for...in the physical world your probably talking about a transfer from lines in a database, is that something you can prosecute for? How much money are we talking about anyways? I mean, since when do the cops care about 5$ in an online game?
I've never played habbo hotel, so is theft built into the game, or did the guy steal his buddies account?
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and its called theft little buddy.
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"the only way to be a thief in Habbo is to get people's usernames and passwords and then log in and take the furniture."
Which is exactly what they did. They got arrested because they were phishing. The crime occurred outside of the game. Theft was not designed to be part of the gameplay, so all you have here is a strawman.
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Re:
Again it doesn't matter directly if theft is designed into the game or not -- but the fact that it could happen. If the crime is for phishing, then the focus should be on phishing, not on "theft" of furniture. And, again, there doesn't seem to be any reason this can't be taken care of within the virtual world.
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Habbo Needs to do a better job
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Re: Habbo Needs to do a better job
...he stole his account and took his furniture...which costs REAL $
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Buying Furniture on-line
Lazy kids. In my day, we scammed "the man". It makes no sense to scam other users. They're just as poor as me, I figure.
Also, who spends their time and money online? I figured one, OK, since I have time, I'll spend it online. If I need to go out for a bite to eat, well, there goes my money. But both? Man, you're really burning the candle at both ends. Also, where are these kids getting all this money? How do you spend 24 hours playing WoW (I know this is not a WoW article, but all the same, I'd like to know how this is done) and then live life? Seems to boggle the mind, unless all of these folks are trust-fund babies.
If that's the case, forget it. I don't want your servers or your users. I've got real life to live, and can't be bothered with living entirely in a virtual world (although apparently I can spend quite a significant amount of time on techdirt...)
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Re: Buying Furniture on-line
I know that you MUST know about pirated movies...and what happens if u get caught w that? hmmm?
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The police being involved has nothing to with laws in a virtual world. Websites were imitating the login of the actual website and stealing identities. This is a real world law, hello???
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The crime is 'phishing'
The real crime here is 'phishing', deceptively obtaining logins and passwords, and then using those details to mess with an online service that someone else paid for. The exact details of what service are not really that important. It could just as easily be iTunes downloads or Windows licences or documents from Pacer. These things all cost real-world money, if I pay for them online and someone else takes them from me that's theft.
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Read the article
This would be on par with phishing for your Amazon.com password, then changing the shipping address to my own for your recent purchases.
To "real?" Ok, how about if I phish for your iTunes password where you have $100 in credit? I can download $100 worth of music. It's all virtual, right?
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Re: Read the article
...im bored as hell btw...funny seeing all the unlogical posts here...
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On the other hand, if this article is really about phishing, then the situation might be different. A real crime has, possibly, been committed. It also says something about the people who are the victims of the scam. Maybe if they spent a little less time in their ridiculous virtual worlds and a little more time out in the real world learning how to take a few basic precautions they might not have fallen for it.
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...yes...
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The original story suggests something else
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The single most disturbing line is:
It is? It's code! It's not even original code. If an admin can't simply ban the idiot being a dork and recall the chair off a tape backup or something this this Hotel has no right to be, either.
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Re: The single most disturbing line is:
I still can't imagine how anyone would pay real money for virtual items be it Hobbo, WoW, or whatever.
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wow
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Virtual Whores
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Re: Virtual Whores
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Going to have to partially disagree
That fact that the stolen goods are "virtual" is immaterial. Why? Because nearly all cyber crime is "theft" of virtual goods anyway.
Let’s say you hack your national bank and move a million dollars from someone else's account to yours.
What have you litterly done? Just changed some one’s and zeros because those ones and zeros don't translate into something tangible until you withdraw the funds or use them to purchase something
But the cops and law do not see it this way and if it is to be this way for some virtual goods it needs to be for all virtual goods
btw
"The folks who run the world should be able to deal with the situation, as they are the world's de facto government. "
More accurate to say they are the worlds de facto GOD. Gov's can only dream they had the same kind of power in the real world
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What happens in Habbo, stays in Habbo
Politicians can be bribed, Presidential voting can be manipulated, even have the death penalty enabled to wipe you off the virtual earth.
Now this type of virtual world I would love to see.
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Let me guess ....... fanatical religious zealot.
Am I close?
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Am I close?
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They are ALSO charged for theft because that's just part of the computer fraud they've committed. And that will indeed be interesting to follow. But the main charge is computer fraud.
But hey, "virtual theft" sounds a lot better in public media, right?
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Make up your mind.
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Too much money not enough guidance
I sure as hell could do something better with that morons money. This is a fake world. You have a problem you tell the admin and they had better be able to fix what happened. You can't tell me there isn't a log of the actions made while playing. It can't be that hard to undo what a scammer does to you.
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I have a really hard time seeing why real-world laws should be applied in a virtual world. The big difference between real and virtual is that in a virtual world "theft" per say (or other "crimes") is not possible unless the creators MAKE IT possible.
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Beam me up Scotty cause this planet sucks
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STUPID!!!
Why bring Police into a game?
If This Is A Real Problem Then They Shouls Stop Habbo Altogether Or Just Allow The Fact That There Is 14 Year Old Scammers Who Are Just Having A Bit Of Fun!
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Isn't that illegal unless they have a permit to allow online gambling?
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habbo Hotel
it is a crime to rob someone of their money isn't it? So really it is a crime to rob someone of their furniture that they have paid real money for.
I think that the police should have been involved.
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think for a min...TERMS AND CONDITIONS?
also...read the TERMS AND CONDITIONS or the AGREEMENT (tells you all the rules and what you can get charged for)...you should read it before accepting and/or joining ANYTHING online...
its like signing a contract...y would u sign a contract without reading it?!?!
so stop and think for a lil bit next time, k?
read the terms and conditions...dont b lazy (bet most here are)
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