October 2008

Japan, kills virtual husband ends up in jail But really

LONDON - The crime is murder: a 43 year old woman would remove her husband's 33. The other day the police went knocking on his door and arrested her. Motive: the woman was angry because the man had imposed a divorce, without explanation, after a long relationship. Stuff happens, but in this case set a precedent, because the crime happened in the virtual world, while the arrest took place in the real world.

E 'success in Japan, as British press reports this morning, and here's what happened (the names were not disclosed for legal reasons, according to the Independent of London). The two had met in an internet game called MapleStory, where players create a character, enter into relationships, they can even marry and have sex, digitally means, or in a virtual reality (the game has 50 million players worldwide, 9 million in Japan only). The he and she in this story, in fact, a living in Tokyo, the other in Sapporo, and have never met face to face. But you liked, or rather liked the characters they create, so much to get married, still in the game, and have daily contact (Sexual and otherwise).

Until at some point he got sick and, with an option provided for in the game, got divorced. She did not take it well. And since he had previously obtained through the game, the name and password he has implemented his revenge killing, or deleting from Maplestory, the character laboriously created by him. He complained to administrators of the game and then with the police, who considered the case as an illegal attack by hackers at a site: a computer-crime, and that for Japan there is a maximum penalty of five years in prison and about 4000 euro fine. So officials have identified the woman and went to his house to arrest her.

Experts say this is the first case in the world where an offense committed during a relationship of "role playing" (RPG) on the Internet is punished by imprisonment in the real world. The English newspapers in truth they cite another, also recently, a Dutch court sentenced two teenagers to 360 hours of social work to get beaten, virtually, a classmate and stealing his possessions in a game on the internet . "These virtual goods are still assets in accordance with Dutch law, so it is a theft," said the judge. The implications of the two decisions can be enormous. "I hope that my ex-wife going to jail," said her husband "murdered" virtually. It means a prison real, not digital. From

Repubblica.it