Woman 'kills' ex-husband's MMO avatar, facing up to 5 years in jail

[Darren Dirt]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/24/AR2008102401707_pf.html

Woman Jailed for Murdering Avatar
A virtual divorce prompts a virtual world murder -- with consequences back in real life.

Brennon Slattery
PC World
Friday, October 24, 2008; 12:19 PM



The line between virtual reality and its flesh-and-blood cousin blurred a little this week as a 43-year-old Tokyo woman was jailed for murdering her virtual ex-husband's avatar.

After she suddenly found herself divorced in "Maple Story," a popular 2-D side scrolling MMORPG, the unidentified woman used her ex-husband's ID and password to log into the game and kill him off. Call it Death by Deletion.

When the man discovered his beloved avatar was gone, he contacted authorities, which led to the woman's arrest. "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning," the woman told investigators. "That made me so angry." The AP reports that the woman had no intention to carry out violence in reality.

The charges are "illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data," which carries a sentence of up to five years in jail or a fine up to $5,000.

This is the first time I've ever heard of real-life authorities getting involved with virtual homicide. While the charges have nothing to do with the avatar's death, but rather the woman's illegal methods of bumping it off, it certainly illustrates how emotionally involving online MMORPGs can be.

[Mr. Analog]

Being a Slashdotter, I didn't RTFA but on the surface it seems unpossible...

Virtual crime now equates to actual punishment, and I don't mean a crime committed through a computer I mean a "fake" crime.

[Darren Dirt]

The charges are "illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data,"

and her "virtual husband" had recently divorced her -- in the MMO game (not in RL, they apparently never met in RL or something).

[Tonnica]

The wording on this one is a bit misleading. Essentially she logged into this fellow's account and deleted it without his knowledge. So basically she illegally accessed his account to get revenge.

Maple Story's core game play is free but there are items purchasable with real world money. He could have lost some invested money along with his invested time due to the deletion. Sucks to be the both of them!

lol Maplestory.

[Tom]

How illegal is it when you're given the username and password to log in? He gave her the login info.

[Mr. Analog]

Makes more sense now...

[Mr. Analog]

How illegal is it when you're given the username and password to log in? He gave her the login info.

Well, I think of it this way, if I gave you the keys to my house but you burnt it down on purpose because you hated me, you are at fault for arson.

[Tom]

How illegal is it when you're given the username and password to log in? He gave her the login info.

Well, I think of it this way, if I gave you the keys to my house but you burnt it down on purpose because you hated me, you are at fault for arson.

Yes, I just destroyed your physical property. All he did was make him create a new character. Its not like she's actually guilty of hacking, which is what they are charging her with.

[Thorin]

How illegal is it when you're given the username and password to log in? He gave her the login info.

Dunno about the wording of the law in Japan, but in the US under DMCA you are peforming an illegal act even if they gave you the username and password but they didn't give you specific authorization to access the computer system using that username and password at that specific time.

DMCA is stupid.