PILLAR POST-Virtual Theft

Kyle logged out of his favorite online game.He was confused and more than a little angry. He had worked long and hard to get that DragonSlayer. The sword was one of the most powerful objects in the game. His avatar went on many, many missions in order to get that sword–how was it possible that it was missing from his in-game apartment? After all, only his avatar Thomas Z has access to that apartment. After contacting tech support, Kyle was told that someone had stolen his account information, and along with it, his sword.

Kyle was furious. He felt violated. It took his weeks of gameplay to get that sword!  This was theft, no doubt about it. So Kyle did what any victim of theft would do: He picked up the phone and called the police.

Even as a large real estate company attempts to bring order to the buying and selling of property, a huge land dispute involving an individual and a corporation has taken an ugly turn. It has now ended up in US Federal Court. In another case, a lawsuit is brewing over the theft and subsequent sale of items possibly protected under intellectual property laws. All of these events are very real. All of the actions, however, are taking place in a virtual world called “Second Life.”

Much popular science fiction assumes that in the future, we will have developed some form of faster-than-light travel. Humans will populate planets far beyond the ones circling the Sun.

Considering that the furthest a human has ever gone is the Moon, and even that was last done more than 30 years ago, that vision of the future, while fun, doesn’t appear to be accurate.

Instead, a time envisioned by futurist Ray Kurzweil and novelists like John C. Wright seem more plausible: A world in which we travel virtually. Instead of merely occupying other worlds, we will live in virtual worlds, owning virtual property and playing virtual games all while sitting in a virtual Starbucks.

The concept of ownership, as a result, will change drastically. In fact, it already has.

Take your iPod for instance. All that music on there, assuming that you didn’t use something like LimeWire to get it (and you know who you are), was likely purchased from the iTunes store. You own the track of music, even though no physical product, like a CD, ever exchanged hands. Cash didn’t even change hands since a credit card was used.

Software that you purchase online is much the same thing. You buy a software title and then have the right to use it on your computer. A physical box was never given to you. You just download, install and use.

Reaching beyond this scenario are games like World of Warcraft. In this game, players pay a monthly fee and then spend their time doing missions and quests in an attempt to obtain more in-game money and items like armor and swords. Real money is expended to play the game, and time is used to gather items and money in the game. Perhaps the sword in the game can’t be used to take out your very real annoying neighbor, but it is awfully good at wiping out goblins in World of Warcraft.

Further yet are places like Second Life. In Second Life anyone can create an avatar and wander the world, looking in stores and buying products, land, furniture and other items for that avatar. There is an actual currency, Linden Dollars, which is used to buy the virtual products for the avatar. Real people design virtual product and then sell it for the in-game money. This in-game money can then be exchanged back into “real” money.

Even in World of Warcraft there are “farmers” who do nothing but seek expensive items and money so that they can sell them for real-world dollars. Unlike in Second Life, however, this activity is not encouraged.

What all of this comes down to is these virtual items have become very real to those who own them. So what happens when virtual property is stolen?

If it is within the rules of the game, certainly nothing more than whatever the typical in-game consequences are should happen. If it is within the rules of the game for someone to steal your property, then nothing can or should be done. Those, as they say, are the breaks.

But what about a game like Second Life, where a person might buy a very cool couch for their avatar to sit on? What happens if that is somehow stolen?

This scenario, in a different game, actually happened. A Dutch teenager was arrested when he tricked some users into giving him their login information and stole 4,000 euros worth of virtual furniture in the game Habbo Hotel.

There are more arrests expected as the Dutch police say there are at least five other teens involved. It should be very interesting to see how the court system deals with this virtual crime.

Right now you might be wondering why anyone would spend 4000 euros on fake furniture in a game. You might even judge people that would spend that kind of money on fake furniture. You might even be right to do so. But that is not the purpose of this post.

The real point here is that people have hobbies and collect things. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if what is stolen is virtual furniture or a Faberge Egg. It is still a crime.

Now, let’s say a similar event happened in World of Warcraft. A phishing scam allows someone to access an account that has large amounts of money and valuable items. He then takes these items and uses these ill-gotten goods in the game, or sells them in-game.

Beyond the phishing, which is already illegal, should theft of items also be added to the list of crimes? Real-world money was not directly spent to gain the in-world money and items, like the furniture in Habbo Hotel. Real money wasn’t exchanged for in-game money either, like in Second Life. The only real-world money involved is the monthly fee.

This is where virtual theft can take an interesting turn.

Using the fictional tale of “Kyle” above, a sword with great in-game value was stolen. “Kyle” spent significant time collecting the in-game currency to acquire that sword. Then it was stolen. Was calling the police the right move?

The idea of the sword being “stolen goods” seems like a stretch. There is no easy way to define the value of the sword or the time spent getting the sword. Leisure time was spent getting the sword, and what is that worth? Additionally the item can be recovered by playing more of the game, something he would have done anyhow, just not on those same terms.

So perhaps “Kyle” shouldn’t have called the police. Of course, he shouldn’t track down the thief and then run him through with a real sword either. This is exactly what Qiu Chengwei did, however, when Zhu Caoyuan borrowed a sword from him in-game, then chose to sell it to another player. So Qiu Chengwei did what any rational person would do. He got a real sword and killed Zhu Caoyuan.

Unlike the fictional tale of “Kyle” told in this post, that story is all too real.

Now, if virtual couches or virtual swords are not enough. What about virtual land speculation? In Second Life there is land available for purchase. New land goes up for auction, at which point anyone in the game can bid to buy the land. Many times speculators purchase the land, only to sell it later for a much higher cost to others. Just like in the real world.

In fact, it is so much like the real world that Coldwell Banker, very much a real-world real estate broker, has entered Second Life as real estate brokers there.

There is something odd about calling virtual land “real” estate, but I digress.

Coldwell Banker is there in the hopes of bringing some order to the disorder that is Second Life’s land market. They say they are not there to make money from Second Life, but rather to be an advertiser with a difference. Rather than passively advertising, they will be there to help buy and sell land in the world of Second Life. All profits, according to Coldwell Banker, will go right back into investing in more Second Life real estate.

So what happens when this land is purchased, only to be taken away later? Marc Bragg is finding out. See, Marc bought land via an auction in Second Life. But Marc studied the system and figured out how to find land not yet up for public auction. In so doing he was able to buy the land in Second Life at prices far below market value before anyone else even had a chance to bid. Linden Labs, who runs Second Life, took the land from him claiming that, basically, this was cheating.

Marc is now suing Linden Labs over this in US Federal Court.

There is even a real-world lawsuit, again involving Second Life, dealing with, shall we say, content of an adult nature. Designs were being copied in the game and then resold. In this case, it is intellectual property in a virtual world that may be getting stolen.

Time and time again we can see examples of virtual property being stolen by people or, in the case of Marc Bragg, being revoked.

These examples of virtual theft will only increase with time. According to the analyst firm Gartner, by 2011 an incredible 80% of Internet users and Fortune 500 corporations will have a virtual world presence.

That number is staggering. With people and corporations spending time, resources and money in these worlds, “real-world” law will be forced to take a long, hard look at virtual worlds, and may have to redefine what property is. Particularly now that corporations are entering these virtual worlds it is likely that the laws will change sooner rather than later.

So what does it all mean?

Virtual worlds like Second Life are breaking new ground. They are creating entire environments where people can go to work, sell products, and then go home again – and they can do these things without leaving the comfort of their chairs in front of their computer screens.

With this amazing new virtual frontier comes very real risk—risk that the items you earn, the items you buy, and the money you spend could be stolen from you. While there are test cases in front of the court like those mentioned above, the laws are not clear yet on what all of this means.

So when you go into these virtual worlds remember: Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Buy some nice things for your avatar. But remember—while getting mugged in Second Life might be physically less painful, the experience of property loss can be just as real. Well, virtually as real.