I am flabergasted

[Sventax]

Dutch court convicts teens of virtual theft

A court in Holland has convicted two teenagers of stealing virtual items in the popular MMO, RuneScape.
Yahoo reports that the 15 and 14-year-old culprits forced a 13-year-old boy into a transferring a "virtual amulet and a virtual mask" to their accounts in RuneScape.
The two were convicted to 360 hours of community service between them. "These virtual goods are goods [under Dutch law], so this is theft," said the court in its ruling.
Eurogamer.nl provided extra details for the crime, relaying local newspaper reports that the errant teens beat up and kicked the victim, and threatened him with a knife.

Source:GI.biz

I don't know what to say, but I understand the psychological side of it.

[Sylar]

Whaaaaaaaaat!? They threatened the kid with a knife and beat him up, but they get convicted for scamming him on a game? That makes no sense waht so ever. Good job they didn't take him into the wild and kill him, they'd probably get life for that.

[SessDMC]

Hey Sylar gimmie your Snake icon or i'll come round and cut you!!!

[rederic]

isint the assault and battery the more serious crime here or am i missing something cuz rune scape sux

[Sylar]

Hey Sylar gimmie your Snake icon or i'll come round and cut you!!!

Do what you want man! Either way you'll have to do atleast 15 days of community service! Yeah, thats what I thought!

[Xelios]

Think thats bad?

Jesus, women. Am I right? Am I left? I am left. Some guy divorced his online wife's avatar in "Maple Story", a Japanese virtual world similar (but not really) to "Second Life", and she, in her resulting anger, killed his character.
A 43-year-old Japanese piano teacher's sudden divorce from her online husband in a virtual game world made her so angry that she logged on and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday.


The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.


Guy was so broken up about his dead character he called the police and had the woman arrested.

She was charged with illegal access onto a computer and manipulating electronic data, police said. If convicted, she could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

I was contemplating making a thread for this, but its related to this. If you like, I'll remove it though (if it seems like a hijack attempt or something).

[Kopkiwi]

Serisouly, WTF. Has the world gone backwards?

The crime is in beating a kid and threatning to knife him.

[Rolovis]

Of course this makes perfect sense! everybody that plays runescape knows that it's more important than your own well-being!

/sarcasm

[carocat]

Actually, I've seen the theft story on many sites and some of them were speculating the courts went in that direction as the attackers were threatening physical harm and had a knife. I'm more surprisd on how they could prove it.


As for the woman/husband, she wasn't given a jail sentence for the action in SL per se, but rather for illegally accessing the computer. At the end of the day it's theft really. Lesson to be learned, never share your password.

[Philizzle]

Hahah.. I love this kind of stuff

[UberNerD20]

wow, first the one about the wife killing he virtual husband ad now this

[darky89]

wow, first the one about the wife killing he virtual husband ad now this

Ha ha, that's excellent.

As for the rune thing, i guess they keep in mind the whole beatings and stabbings. Anyway, if they're sad enough to bully someone for stuff in an online game they deserve it. They are ********s.

[Baki]

[B]Dutch court convicts teens of virtual theft

Source:GI.biz

I don't know what to say, but I understand the psychological side of it.

6 months Juvy I say in the least. Threating someone with a knife isn't something that should be taken lightly.

[Sventax]

6 months Juvy I say in the least. Threating someone with a knife isn't something that should be taken lightly.

We don't do that here in Holland unless you have a history of crimes.

But he was convicted for theft of a virtual something, which is meaningless.
The act itself is punish worthy.

320 hours equals 160 days of prison if you don't show up (5.3 months).
They usually do this with kids and 1st time offenders unless it's a casualty related crime.

[SamuraiClarke]

Your kidding right? Don't they have more important things to do?

[gruddy]

I really don't know what to say. The world has well and truly gone crazy. Why on earth are the police force messing around with games when they can be taking down drug lords? People never cease to amaze me.