Comments on: Why Virtual Theft Should Matter to Real Life Tech Companies

By: Will Parents Pay $72-a-Year for Virtual Barbies? - GigaOM

Will Parents Pay $72-a-Year for Virtual Barbies? - GigaOM — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 04:42:50 +0000

[...] the virtual world industry, which often depends on low cost virtual item sales (ala Gaia Online and Habbo Hotel) or pre-paid physical toys (ala Webkinz) for its [...]

By: kall

kall — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:19:19 +0000

Place a virtual cop and refund victims after an investigation.

By: Mike Beaudry

Mike Beaudry — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:58:59 +0000

As a former online game admin, I have a serious problems with a profit-making corporation expecting the real-world justice systtem to chase after "griefers" in their virtual worlds; exceptions made for cases of child predators or a person who makes irl (in real life) threats.

The game makers keep logs and backups, and (should) have the means to restore stolen goods to original accounts and to close the accounts of offenders --- call this part of their virtual justice- and victim-recompensation system for their virtual world.

I'm absolutely certain its a chore to perform, but it is a real part of the real cost of running a virtual world from which they earn their real profits. And nothing stops the company from improving their admin tools to make such restitutions quicker and simpler -- time is money.

Theft is theft, but let's keep track of jurisdiction, and use irl cops for irl crimes.

By: Anthony Hocken

Anthony Hocken — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:00:53 +0000

For those that can’t understand that this is still theft, consider downloading game software - It’s not a tangible item you can hold (if downloaded); it’s just a compliation of code/3d-design/3d-animation/graphics/sound. But it took time to design, make and distribute and it’s the person’s time and skill you’re paying for.

Game enhancements are just an extention to this, and although virtual furniture is a extreme/simple example, it’s fundamentally no different. Theft is theft. If somebody puts effort into making something that others are happy to pay for, and they depend on it as part/all their income, why should some people be allowed to steal it.

By: Shefaly

Shefaly — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:34:41 +0000

What about content theft? Plagiarism from blogs is rampant and growing. (Here we were mistakenly believing that only graduate students plagiarised to appear more impressive in thesis than in reality!). Why is it that a virtual sofa is considered worthy of police attention whereas real expressions of ideas and thoughts are not?

By: chetas patel

chetas patel — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:21:30 +0000

Kids are kids. Adults should be punshied, but not kids. Adults have intent and plan. Kids just dont have enough pocket money!

Teenagers just do it to rebel and cause grief.

The sites should have better security in place to deter the latter two

By: Cranford

Cranford — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:57:47 +0000

I won’t let my kids become part of the revenue stream for companies selling them nothing but more time with their butts on chairs. I hope this security problem burgeons, and brings down the whole edifice of “kid-targeted properties”. The “virtual economy” is a scam in itself.

By: Adam Martin {Fat Man}

Adam Martin {Fat Man} — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:00:28 +0000

The virtual economy is still very much in it’s infancy, think Gold Farmers etc… but to dismiss this episode a mere trivial news would be foolish - the burgeoning virtual economy as evinced by China’ massive private/public investment in a virtual server park is going to be the next industrial revolution promoting not only virtual working but the rise of virtual currency and with that the crime that will follow.

By: Prashant

Prashant — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:34:02 +0000

i thought debate about Rape in Second Life [http://tinyurl.com/2v58ht] is the most wacky news item i have seen but now there is theft also .
While I agree with the general argument you gave but there are services like IP Anonymizer , being used for accessing Pandora out side of US , P2P driven Piracy which need more attention than someone stealing something virtual

By: Eric Rice

Eric Rice — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:17:54 +0000

In most of the coverage of the issue (as it was covered around the blgosophere), most commenters were too busy being sarcastic and cute to think about the real issues.

Anyway, back to vampire-bite-poking on Facebook before a deathmatch in Halo 3.

Silly fake things.

By: csven

csven — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:27:25 +0000

I expect we’ll be hearing more and more about this sort of thing. After all, it’s only virtual. Who pays for intangible stuff? That’s just stupid. [/sarcasm]