Spring Break
Thieves in virtual reality
John Tavares
Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: Forum
There are plenty of forms of property with which we are familiar with. There are things we can tangibly own, like land, cars, iPods and ham sandwiches. And then there is that ever elusive to define intellectual property such as music, art and literature which causes our generations so much trouble when put into a digital format.
Now what would you do if you found out your property had been stolen? Call the police of course, and hope that they can find the thieves. If you would you intellectual property is stolen, call the Recording Industry Association of America, Motion Picture Association of America or your lawyers? And just hope you are rich or famous enough to sue the pants off the young thief.
But now there is another form of property: intangible and quite controversial. That is, the objects and "land" bought and traded in online virtual worlds.
These virtual worlds have been gaining popularity - both for gamers playing World of Warcraft or Ultima Online and for social networkers using Second Life and Habbo Hotel
There are over 12 million users with accounts current on Second Life, over 7 million on World of Warcraft.
Recently I read a report by BBC News about a Dutch teenager who was arrested for stealing thousands of dollars worth of virtual furniture in the virtual world of Habbo Hotel.
That's right, digital furniture. What makes this incident so momentous is that it marks the first arrest ever made for theft of virtual property.
The police treated the incident as theft because real money had been used to pay for the furnishings.
And here in lies the rub, so to speak. As the popularity of virtual worlds grows, and with it the buying and trading of virtual objects and cash, we have the unprecedented development of a virtual economy that is tied into our real economy. People are now making entire livings, sometimes extremely lucrative, through the mercantilism that these worlds offer in game or through auction sites such as eBay.
Now what would you do if you found out your property had been stolen? Call the police of course, and hope that they can find the thieves. If you would you intellectual property is stolen, call the Recording Industry Association of America, Motion Picture Association of America or your lawyers? And just hope you are rich or famous enough to sue the pants off the young thief.
But now there is another form of property: intangible and quite controversial. That is, the objects and "land" bought and traded in online virtual worlds.
These virtual worlds have been gaining popularity - both for gamers playing World of Warcraft or Ultima Online and for social networkers using Second Life and Habbo Hotel
There are over 12 million users with accounts current on Second Life, over 7 million on World of Warcraft.
Recently I read a report by BBC News about a Dutch teenager who was arrested for stealing thousands of dollars worth of virtual furniture in the virtual world of Habbo Hotel.
That's right, digital furniture. What makes this incident so momentous is that it marks the first arrest ever made for theft of virtual property.
The police treated the incident as theft because real money had been used to pay for the furnishings.
And here in lies the rub, so to speak. As the popularity of virtual worlds grows, and with it the buying and trading of virtual objects and cash, we have the unprecedented development of a virtual economy that is tied into our real economy. People are now making entire livings, sometimes extremely lucrative, through the mercantilism that these worlds offer in game or through auction sites such as eBay.
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