The game world is fictious and it was made by the developer. If the developer created the game with the ability to steal objects from other people, it is permissible. The only possible violation is whether the game player violated his terms of service in playing the game ... at which the developer could offer a cease and desist for the player to stop playing.
If this were real life, and somebody stole somebody's sword, it is illegal, but that does not give anybody else a right to shoot that person.
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If you steal money from someone by paypal phishing, just because that money doesnt exist as anything more than 1s and 0s in a computer, does that mean it lacks value?
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PayPal makes use of real currency... You make actual money that can be traded. Money is not owned by the person who owns it, it is owned by the government who prints it and backs it up. SImilarly, your bank account is a bunch of 1s and 0s in a computer ... yet those 1s and 0s represent actual currency. If I steal from your PayPal account, I am obtaining federal property illegally, at your expense. If you are trading beans and somebody steals your beans, regardless of whether you've been using those beans in placement for money, unless they are valued on the market as being worth what you trade them for, they are just beans ... I may steal your beans, for the most part (you can sue me for stealing your beans, but it is not a crime similar to how stealing money is).
Similarly, the money in a game like WoW is fake money ... That money is not recognized in an international market. If you owed money on your mortgage, and you offered to pay it in WoW money, that would not be accepted. So, if I steal 40,000 WoW dollars from you, regardless of the 'virtual work' you've done, it carries no legal weight other than a violation of a terms of service. You could possibly sue me for damages and the developer could issue a cease and desist and ban me from the game, but you could not get a warrant for my arrested.
I do not think that there should be laws regarding virtual money in virtual universes. They're bound to be exploited, out of date, and a huge waste of time and real money.
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One more thing to ad, if you want WoW money and the items you've obtained to be protected by laws .. you have to pay taxes on those items. Do you want to claim that expensive WoW sword as an asset, or the 1,000,000 WoW dollars as income?
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When you download a song or a movie, you're not depriving somebody of enjoyment, you're violating rights to their material (legally speaking).