Two teens in the Netherlands have been convicted of stealing virtual property. First such case I've heard of.
A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in a computer game and sentenced them to community service.Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of "virtual goods."
The Leeuwarden District Court says the culprits, 15 and 14 years old, coerced a 13-year-old boy into transferring a "virtual amulet and a virtual mask" from the online adventure game RuneScape to their game accounts.
"These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law), so this is theft," the court said Tuesday in a summary of its ruling.
How would such a case play out in America?
Interesting. Something similiar happened to my son on that same game - Runescape. It was a good lesson for him to learn about trust and trying to cheat.
In his case, one of his "friends" convinced him to provide his username/password and the "friend" would get him money/goods that he didn't want to have to work for. That "Friend" logged in, changed the password, and transferred all the money/goods out.
We had a nice discussion about trust and online issues after that.