Dutch Supreme Court Rules That Free Virtual Items Theft Is Real Word Crime

After playing Final Fantasy XI for over 8 years and paying a monthly fee for 3 POL accounts ($24.95 or so EACH per month now for 8+ years), I totally agree there is value in online games. Thing is the producers of these games really don't want it this way because of the implication to them should the shut down the game and/or something happens to their servers (e.g. lose your account). As I live in the USA this ruling doesn't directly affect me, but courts can take the ruling and logic under advisement to the extent it covers your local (in my case USA) law. It would be interesting / nice to have a similar court case go before the US Supreme Court. Would the MMORPG companies stand behind convicted criminals and try to get them off? It could have a negative effect upon their company's standing with parents, law enforcement, the public, etc. Yet, to have the court rule in a criminal case virtual items have value means in civil court it would be much easier to prove the same and thus . . . Time will tell the tale and I look forward to seeing how this one turns out. QUESTION: Did any MMORPG companies file briefs with any of the courts in this case??? It would be helpful to know.

After playing Final Fantasy XI for over 8 years and paying a monthly fee for 3 POL accounts ($24.95 or so EACH per month now for 8+ years), I totally agree there is value in online games. Thing is the producers of these games really don't want it this way because of the implication to them should the shut down the game and/or something happens to their servers (e.g. lose your account). As I live in the USA this ruling doesn't directly affect me, but courts can take the ruling and logic under advisement to the extent it covers your local (in my case USA) law. It would be interesting / nice to have a similar court case go before the US Supreme Court. Would the MMORPG companies stand behind convicted criminals and try to get them off? It could have a negative effect upon their company's standing with parents, law enforcement, the public, etc. Yet, to have the court rule in a criminal case virtual items have value means in civil court it would be much easier to prove the same and thus . . . Time will tell the tale and I look forward to seeing how this one turns out. QUESTION: Did any MMORPG companies file briefs with any of the courts in this case??? It would be helpful to know.

lol over this garbage game lol i almost fell out of my chair from laughing to much

although this isnt about the theft, its about the knife to the ******* throat although in a game where theft is accepted as a mechanic i think EVE wont do well there

you guys are all missing the point of why the court ruled it the way they did, and punished the kids for theft rather than for the assault. They punished the kids for the theft so that situation can be prevented from happening again in the future. If they were to punish the kids for the assault, yeah they'd be locked up, but that crime could happen again, and then it'd just have to be dealt with again. They were able to, because of that case, broaden what is all considered to be valued. This brought in video games, internet, and basically anything you spend time on.

umm y is the world so dumb?

what a noob

And I love the guy who thinks he has high authority because he is a bata tester. Are you in the game credits? You Toothless Jagoff.

That Mask is worth 200mil in the game the amulet 20mil, which can be sold fast for 100$ real money and I mean fast. This was Armed Robbery, don't judge it as a Video game item, judge it as 100$ because that's what they stoled.

its obvious that the court had some runescape gamers..or gamers..that know the feeling of working so hard to get items..... but...still the punishment should have been for the assault and not the theft

I think we should all just protest for them to give a more 'suitable' punishment to an assaulter forget the f***ing theft thumbs up if u agree

seriously? so does this mean i can brutally assault that fella that camped me countless times in WoW? "Its was just self defence officer..i swear it!" or how about the numerous times i was ninja looted? seriously guys...anyone that doesnt think those guys should recieve psychiatric help (at the very least) has got problems... its just a game...get over it...this is stupid. hmmm...maybe a double barrel sawed off shotgun for the fella that stole that WoW account...i put plenty of time and money into that thing...and i never got it back......is that a legit reason to threaten somebody? over a mask....in runescape non-the-less...bloody hell people

all i have to say is are you ******* serious, assult and battery over video game items? really?

First off, the kids should be punished for the assault, not the theft. Assault would earn more punishment time than theft, especially if the theft is under a certain amount of dollars, in my state $500. Since you can't actually put a price on a vertal item unless it was actually bought with real currency in the first place, it would count as a misdimeanor at best. Hacking is a crime, as well as profiting off of copyrighted material(gold selling) and have laws written specifically for them. Threatening or griefing a player is normally bannable in most games, but not necessarily a crime. The game publishers can't do anything about out of game violence, the out of game courts can't actually do anything about something that happens in game either. Had there not been the actual assault, their case would not have held up in court at all because technically, the child gave the items to the assailants. There is also the case that games actually put in an option to steal items from other players such as looting a corpse if you defeat them or pickpocketing. At one time, years ago, Runescape had something similar to this. If it still has those mechanics(I wouldn't know since I've graduated to much more mature games), I don't see why they didn't just do that. Or... maybe offer a trade to the kid. Or hack his account since its not as bad a crime as assaulting a kid. Well... apparently assaulting a kid isn't such a big crime after all if all they got was community service. That would have ended up getting the kids juvy in my day. To be honest, the title should say, its not worth it to beat up a kid in real life for virtual materials or something if they're trying to steer kids away from moronic deeds.

The thing is,guy was beaten up,threatened with a knife,doesnt matter because og game or some other ****,it was real knife,real wounds,real life. They have to be in a mental institution

Once some kid at school stole my runescape stuff He's still buried somewhere in my backyard.

The Supreme Court however counter-argued that the stolen virtual items have value because of the "time and energy invested" to acquire them. what........ f**k of... its a f**king game..... you dont punish someone over a game WHAT you sould punish them over is the fact that they treatened someone with a knife, beat them up, then made the punishment worse because it was over a game... which is sad.... "oh im gonna rape because you shot me in the face on call of duty"......... ...SAD ACT!

The Dutch Court never said that the ingame theft was a crime. They only stated that the time and effort can be valued. It's the beating and threatening that was the crime, and the judge only found that the 'value' argument was not good for lowering the punishment. Beating someone up and threatening him must be punished. Then you can't say, 'well, i wasn't going to steal anything'

i say we tie then to the back of a car and drive down a graval rode, then shower them in lemon juice... but thats just me...

Screw that law. im gonna pickpocket in assassins creed anytime i want

Really, they beat the hell out of and nearly killed a 13 year old for a virtual mask? is that what this world has come to these days? 1. The **** heads who did this should be put in a detention centre. 2 . those people need to get a life, no offence to other gamers (I'm a gamer to) it's just that if you are going to hurt people for game content you shouldn't be around any electronic games at all, you don't deserve it.

This may be the legal ruling needed to put a dent in account thefts and the sale of stolen accounts from MMOs. By assigning a value to the account when they try to sell it the thieves are conceding that the account and the data associated with it have an economic value.

I'm sorry, but WTF is wrong with these people? The assailants physically, in the real world, beat the hell out of the kid and threaten to kill him... yet the "theft" of virtual in-game merchandise is what they get punished for? How about assault and battery? Attempted murder?

No government has the authority to pass such a law as the developer owns all rights to you character, inventory, and even the character name once you input it in there game. No, assault charges are enough. Plus, how would you be able to prove this? Also, would the court have ruled the same way if the assault victim stole the assailants' items in retaliation?

Inventing a new law for that is insane! They should have charged the agressors for attempt of murder or something else, but what the authorities did is ridiculous and they've only proven their stupidity

those bastards should be jailed or be put under house arest for a lifetime