[Plain Old Jane]

A man was recently killed in korea for stealing a sword in an MMORPG. No, it wasnt publically sanctioned and carried out. He was killed by the man he stole it from. But the question is whether or not prohibitory laws should have punished the man first.

Because of this, many many questions about this sort of thing have been sprouting up all over the internet. Questions like, is stealing a virtual sword any different than stealing a real one? Lets take a look at the issues:

1. First of all, the man owned the sword, it was in his possesion and by all accounts, he earned it by playing through some odd quest of some sort for hours. For all intents and purposes, does this entitle him to it?

2. Stealing a sword on a game is different from stealing a song or from stealing a movie online. When I bittorrent myself out a copy of my favorite lesbian comedy "But I'm a Cheerleader" or a good drama like "If These Walls Could Talk 2," I'm not depriving that file from anyone else's enjoyment. Maybe I'm stealing some change from someone like George Lucas, but fuck him, I paid for sitting through episode 1 and 2, fuck him if he cant make a movie worth a shit anymore.
Anyway, stealing this sword, deprived this other man of his enjoyment of the game and made his hours of 'work' worth nil. Is this any different from stealing a real sword from a stalwart warrior? Now this brave warrior must go out and aquire a new sword, at his own expense, meanwhile the dickless wonder walks away with a great deal of time and energy saved. Is this any different from real theft? 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?

In america, only 10 percent of all currency is hard, the rest is just on HDDs and such. This, as speculated by many social scientists is the inevitable outcome of our economies, energy currency. But I digress, what does this all mean?

It means that if it has happened once, it is going to happen again, that means that leaders will need a way to deal with that, and that means legislation. Virtual Legislation.

I see this becoming a reality more and more as the internet becomes the dominant media in homes.

Perhaps in the end, the dead geeks death will have a purpose.