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Virtual theft in MMO RuneScape is now a real-world crime, according to a ruling by the Dutch Supreme Court.
This follows a case in which two teens threatened a RuneScape player at knifepoint in order to gain in-game items from him, MSNBC reports.
After a lower court convicted the thieves in 2009, one of the defendants appealed to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the virtual items had no economic value.
However, in response the judge stated the virtual items’ value was represented in the “time and energy invested” in order to acquire. Both thieves were sentenced to 144 hours of community service.
Back in the virtual world, RuneScape developer Jagex has recently been working to fight hackers and gold-farmers, as well as illegal third-party programs that allow users to farm gold and XP without even playing.
The use of a real world knife is surely more important in this case than the items taken.
