Spectacularly Bad Ideas In Response To The Financial Crisis

That Was Fast: Woman Arrested For Virtual Murder Of Virtual Husband

from the fantastic dept

Thu, Oct 23rd 2008 11:12am — Mike Masnick

Earlier this week, in writing about some kids convicted of theft in the real world, I jokingly asked if we'd soon hear of someone arrested for "murder" for killing a virtual character. Who knew it would happen so fast? Okay, actually, it's not that extreme, but a woman in Japan has been arrested (in real life) for "killing" the avatar of her virtual husband, who had apparently "virtually" divorced her. The charges are not for murder (phew), but illegally accessing his computer. She basically logged in to his account and killed off the character. Of course, you might argue that she didn't do anything illegal, since the guy had given her his password in "happier times" and hadn't changed it. Also, again, this certainly seems like the sort of thing that could (and should) have been taken care of directly in the world. The folks who run the world could easily revive the guy, and kick the woman out of the world. Case closed.

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Filed Under: japan, laws, murder, virtual worlds

34 Comments

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another mike, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:24am

change the locks
You'd change the locks when you divorce someone in real life, you should change passwords when you virtual divorce someone in a game world.
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Greg, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:50am

...
hmmm... wow just.. just.. just wow.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:53am

"...has been arrested (in real life) for "killing" the avatar of her virtual husband"

Wouldn't that be called 'Character Assassination?' ;)
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- Miss Tay, 23 Oct 2008 @ 3:47pm
  
  Re:
  That was hilarious!!!!!
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Dave, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:55am

"...has been arrested (in real life) for "killing" the avatar of her virtual husband"

Wouldn't that be called 'Character Assassination?' ;)

Sorry, I'm not anonymous, I just forgot to fill in the info...
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Just some guy, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:00pm

Wow
Only in Japan
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:10pm

geez, I remember back in Ultima Online a dude killed me, took my recall stone and keys to my house and robbed the hell out of me before I could revive myself and get a posse of friends to take the jerk down... I should have totally sued him! Or you know... not care that much about virtual stuff!
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Rob, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:14pm

Actually, it's no big deal if they were virtually killed. Every game I know has a resurrect option with small, if any, penalty. If she actually Deleted the character, that would be different.

Since he gave her the account information, it then means that she did NOT "break in" but merely abused the privilege he had given her. I don't see this as being something to arrest her for and charge her with - and I'm a gamer. Of course, not even my wife has MY password...
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- Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:20pm
  
  Re:
  I'm guessing that, in this case, "killed" is how the press is reporting deleted. In some cases, Deleted is forever.
  
  Not sure how many games can undelete a character, but most I play can. WoW did it for someone I know, after his characters had been deleted more than 9 months.
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Staying Alive, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:19pm

My wife threatened to kill me in the real world if I didn't kill off my game avatars so I understand where this woman is coming from.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:23pm

This would be a big deal if she had been arrested for murder. But she was arrested for illegal access to a computer. That is a whole different thing.

I am disappointed in techdirt for publishing this article. It is hyping something in the headline that simply is not true. I don't see any difference between this and someone hyping that video games promote violence or that piracy is ruining the recording industry. Please, please don't become what you have fought so hard against for years.
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- Mike (profile), 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:32pm
  
  Re:
  I am disappointed in techdirt for publishing this article. It is hyping something in the headline that simply is not true.
  
  Actually, many of the mainstream press are using a headline about murder, but I specifically chose to highlight VIRTUAL twice, to make the point of how silly that was. Perhaps it was too subtle? The headline is mocking the concept...
  
  Plus, the post is quite clear on what happened. So I don't think we have fallen into the hype problem you describe.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:30pm
    
    Re: Re:
    I thought the charge was going to be murder by the title of the post, but was mislead.
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John Doe, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:34pm

Can you send a virtual "you" to jail in place of the real "you"?
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- Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:20pm
  
  Re:
  virtually all the time
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MATT, 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:05pm

maplestory = game without deaths
all you could do to "kill" a character in maplestory is either continually respawn it (racking up a leveling penalty) or delete it.

There is no murder of any sort.
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Jeanne, 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:38pm

This is just a plain waste of time and money. I love game play but sending someone to REAL jail over a Virtual character is silly.She only accessed what he had given her the account information for and by choosing not to change his passwords is responsible for his own virtual demise.
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Igor, 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:51pm

Makes total sence
I do not see what the problem is (except that some prosecutor's office had so little work that they bothered with this case).

Forget the game. She accessed his account w/o authorization. The fact that he gave her a password is irrelevant. It is people and not the passwords that grant/deny authorization.

Since the husband (obviously) never say directly or even implied that he is authorizing her to login to his account to deliberately perform such actions as killing his avatars, she was doing so without authorization.

Just imagine instead of screwing up his "avatar state information", she was "deleted his doctoral thesis research notes" stored in some account to which he had previously gave her a password. Both are purelly "the state of some bits on some magnetic media".
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- Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:51pm
  
  Re: Makes total sence
  Seeing how they are husband & wife and he gave her his password, it would be a civil case, not a criminal one.
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- The better half, 23 Oct 2008 @ 6:40pm
  
  Re: Makes total sence
  Erm.. It says she was charged with Illegaly accesing his computer. All she did was access his account. His computer was never touched....|-* Sooooooo Stuuuupid.
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Overtkill, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:27pm

Hmm....
She could have given him a bad haircut and a few tattoos in raunchy places. That would likely be a lesser charge of "Virtual Assault."

You know the lawyers would have fun with that charge too. I suppose players of games like rainbow six, ghost recon, and battlefield would have some stiff fines place on them. Assault.... a very wide definition. :)

Out of curiosity, in what game did this happen??
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Igor, 23 Oct 2008 @ 3:25pm

> Seeing how they are husband & wife and he gave her his password, it would be a civil case, not a criminal one.

What are you smoking? Who cares whether they were "married" or who gave whom a passowrd?

I can give a neighbor keys from my house, so in case I lock myself out, I can ask him to open my door. That does not give him any more rights AT ALL to come into my house to destroy my furniture.
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john, 23 Oct 2008 @ 4:04pm

in jail
this has to be the stupidest thing i ever herd of in my life' she deletes an avatar and is in jail for murder come on people its a game for crist's sake wake up will ya's
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Patty, 23 Oct 2008 @ 4:17pm

That Was Fast: Woman Arrested For Virtual Murder Of Virtual Husband
You might want to reread or research this story. According to what I read this was not her husband, but she got the login information from an unrelated 33 year old office worker. The police could not verify if she is actually married to anyone.
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Joeymom, 23 Oct 2008 @ 4:22pm

Geez Louise
When I played MUDs, you just restored him, banned her, and it was all over. What's with the real arrests? This is ridiculous.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 4:39pm

Arrest someone over this? It's not hacking by any stretch of the imagination. You leave your account and password out for anyone and you take this chance. The furthest this should have gone is banning her account and restoring his. It's a story because how far the police went in this case...which it should have been a civil matter.
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undergrunder, 23 Oct 2008 @ 4:53pm

She deserves to be put into virtual jail, not real jail.
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Jesse, 23 Oct 2008 @ 8:59pm

While justice is so hard to come by for most people in the real world, it is nice to see that real world legal professionals are ensuring justice in pretend worlds.
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chad, 24 Oct 2008 @ 5:23am

They were only married in the game. She is wrong. she should be held to some kind of penalty. It could have been his bank account or his wrok files or any number of importan info we now trust our computers to "hold" safe for us. If she gets away with it,how long till it is ok for me to hack all your money out of your bank and get away with it???
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Omari, 24 Oct 2008 @ 5:30am

Wow
What the hell. This is some serious bullshit. What has the world come to wehn this happens. Only in japan..
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?????, 24 Oct 2008 @ 5:32am

its dumb over something on maple story lmao
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Jenjen, 24 Oct 2008 @ 5:49am

this is funny! i bust out laughing when i heard about this. woooooooooow.........
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Phoenix Wright, 24 Oct 2008 @ 6:25am

Objection!
http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=2793689
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