Dutch Teens Convicted for Stealing Virtual Items

[Dragnmoon]

I sign of things to come?.. Link.

Spoiler:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — 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.

Identities of the minors were not released.

[Radavel]

Civil Law countries like France and Spain would probably emulate such a ruling if a case like this should ever reach their courts.

[Andrew Turner]

oooh...not good for communities like Pirate Bay...

[Radavel]

I believe downloading torrents from Pirate Bay is different.

[Kruelaid]

Yah this is not an IPR case. You should read that article again, Turner. Amazing.

[Dragnmoon]

Radavel wrote:

I believe downloading torrents from Pirate Bay is different.

Not only that, it is difficult to impossible to bring cases against these poeple who own those servers because of the countries they are located in.

That is why for example Music companies in general go against the downloaders not the people who maintian the torrent pages.

[Radavel]

The element of coercion is very much a factor. Under US law, that is extortion.

I think what is important is that the Dutch Court recognized that Virtual Items are property. Consequently, all laws relative to property apply.

[Andrew Turner]

Kruelaid wrote:

Yah this is not an IPR case. You should read that article again, Turner. Amazing.

[chagrined] I should have read the article in the first place...

[Dragnmoon]

Radavel wrote:

The element of coercion is very much a factor. Under US law, that is extortion.

I think what is important is that the Dutch Court recognized that Virtual Items are property. Consequently, all laws relative to property apply.

Cool I see bill of Sales and taxes in the future!!!

Ugh

[Chef's Slaad]

Radavel wrote:

The element of coercion is very much a factor. Under US law, that is extortion.

I think what is important is that the Dutch Court recognized that Virtual Items are property. Consequently, all laws relative to property apply.

I think coorcion was the deciding factor. I've been following this story for a bit. The victim was threatened and beaten before signing over the virtual items. Without these facts, there would only be the theft of virtual items in a free online game. It would have been much harder to get a conviction based soly on those facts.

[Fatespinner]

What's really scary about all this is that it sets precedent for charging sales tax on items sold to other players in-game.

At 8% tax, I owe the U.S. Government like 9000 gold!

[Jal Dorak]

Property is just a realization of expended time. That person gave up a significant portion of their life, and wealth (which is also time) to attain those virtual items. So in essence, those two teens were stealing a part of the victims life.

[Radavel]

Fatespinner wrote:

What's really scary about all this is that it sets precedent for charging sales tax on items sold to other players in-game.

At 8% tax, I owe the U.S. Government like 9000 gold!

I would argue that when the law was made, the lawmakers did not contemplate its application to virtual items.

[WannabeIndy]

Due to the proliferation of Gold sellers this gives an exchange rate for such and therefore they could tax you real money for your game gold, (The discussion came up on the EVE forums a bit back.)