TASSY P2P FORUMS

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:09 am**

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7094764.stm

'Virtual theft' leads to arrest

A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from "rooms" in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.
The 17-year-old is accused of stealing 4,000 euros (Â£2,840) worth of virtual furniture, bought with real money.

Five 15-year-olds have also been questioned by police, who were contacted by the website's owners.

The six teenagers are suspected of moving the stolen furniture into their own Habbo rooms.

A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: "The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by creating fake Habbo websites.

"In Habbo, as in many other virtual worlds, scamming for other people's personal information such as user names has been problematic for quite a while.

"We have had much of this scamming going on in many countries but this is the first case where the police have taken legal action."

Habbo users can create their own characters, decorate their own rooms and play a number of games, paying with Habbo Credits, which they have to buy with real cash.

"It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money. But the only way to be a thief in Habbo is to get people's usernames and passwords and then log in and take the furniture.

"We got involved because of an increasing number of sites which are pretending to be Habbo. People might then try and log in and get their details stolen."

Six million people in more than 30 countries play Habbo Hotel each month.

Virtual theft is a growing issue in virtual worlds; in 2005 a Chinese gamer was stabbed to death in a row over a sword in a game.

Shanghai gamer Qiu Chengwei killed player Zhu Caoyuan when he discovered he had sold a "dragon sabre" he had been loaned.

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:27 am**

Pretty sure those kids are surprised to find out they have been arrested in the real world over stealing in a computer game.

That's probably why they removed perma-death from SWG. Otherwise if you killed someone, they could sue you.

Eventually we'll be on murder trial for team-killing someone in multiplayer FPS.

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:47 am**

Yeah the I piarte games to see if I like them and if I do then I buy them argument. Well, I stole this car and I dont like it. I'll just steal another until I find one I like.

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:46 pm**

These teenagers stole login credentials through some nefarious means, logged in as the characters belonging to unwitting players, and then stole game items that were purchased with real-world money.

That's why it's theft in law. There's no indication to say whether the three teenage boys had a legitimate copy of the game or not - actually the article says it's a 3D Web site so there may be no software required. So it's not strictly pirating but it could amount to identity theft as well as theft of virtual items paid for with real money.

Still... it could herald the beginnning of a slippery slope and that is of concern. How long is it before players sue because they joined a guild that wasn't what they expected or reported a player to the police because they were killed in PVP. Ridiculous? Maybe, but we've plenty of evidence to draw from already... anyone remember the infamous McDonalds coffee case?

Lets hope common sense prevails