Teen convicted for stealing make-believe objects in online fantasy game
I think you're missing the point. The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in this case was kicked and threatened with a real knife, in the real world. The legal question was whether the online game credits the attacker forced him to turn over had actual value, so that the theft would be included in the crime.
I'm not a gamer, but I would say yes. The New Yorker had a feature on so-called "gold farmers"--gamers who make a living collecting credits in online games and selling them, for [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], to other gamers. The article said many of them are Chinese, from rural or economically depressed areas where the money from "gold farming" stacks up well against their other opportunities.
But where is the line? If I were to threaten someone with a knife to steal "online credits" on some site that lets me buy things with them, is *that* theft? If so, why is that so different from this case (since the kid really would have been able to sell his amulet etc for real-life money, although this might have violated the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of the game)? If it isn't theft, how is it different from threatening someone with a knife and getting them to log in and wire me money from their account?
And as a different angle of commentary on this: with all the chirping from Big Media about how copying music and video files counts as "theft", there's still a big difference between what they're complaining about and what's happened in this case: after the incident, the boy *no longer had* the items that had been stolen. It's really a fundamental property of theft---after you steal something from me, I no longer have the use of it.
I think you're missing the point. The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in this case was kicked and threatened with a real knife, in the real world. The legal question was whether the online game credits the attacker forced him to turn over had actual value, so that the theft would be included in the crime.
I'm not a gamer, but I would say yes. The New Yorker had a feature on so-called "gold farmers"--gamers who make a living collecting credits in online games and selling them, for [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], to other gamers. The article said many of them are Chinese, from rural or economically depressed areas where the money from "gold farming" stacks up well against their other opportunities.
But where is the line? If I were to threaten someone with a knife to steal "online credits" on some site that lets me buy things with them, is *that* theft? If so, why is that so different from this case (since the kid really would have been able to sell his amulet etc for real-life money, although this might have violated the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] of the game)? If it isn't theft, how is it different from threatening someone with a knife and getting them to log in and wire me money from their account?
And as a different angle of commentary on this: with all the chirping from Big Media about how copying music and video files counts as "theft", there's still a big difference between what they're complaining about and what's happened in this case: after the incident, the boy *no longer had* the items that had been stolen. It's really a fundamental property of theft---after you steal something from me, I no longer have the use of it.