Want to fly the dragon, get to the castle, beat the bad king, steal the princess and take the gold?? Stop(!), theft and kidnap may not be allowed. Want to steal another game players car, drive it at high speeds through crowded streets and ram it into a digital bank’s wall?? Well, that’s going to be against the law! Surely?? Want to buy and sell virtual items between players and then never pay up? Who decides whether that’s against the law?
Countries in Asia are considering new sets of laws governing in-game crime. This has been highlighted recently by the murder of a Chinese man who didn’t pay up for the purchase of a super sword for the game Legends Of Mir 3, by the seller. Whilst places like South Korea which has a section of its police force that investigates in-game crime, the BBC reports that, "The row is thought to have blown up partly because China has no laws that cover the theft of virtual in-game items."
Many of the magic weapons, armor, artifacts and money
from online games, such as EverQuest and Ultima Online, change hands
for large sums of money. At any one time millions of dollars in game items are being traded on places like eBay or specialized sites. The China Daily said that increasing numbers of players
were going to court to resolve disputes over stolen money and game
items.
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