If some asshat hacked into my World of Warcraft account and deleted my characters (some of which I've put many months of work into) I would definitely want to see the bastards banged up. 5 years is a fair punishment, although I'd personally rather they saw 50!

When will people learn that crime never pays (unless you're upper management in a bank or investment firm).

Great, now in addition to stories of couples fighting over the dog we will now get virtual custody battles of kids, pets, furniture.

He *SHARED* his password???

Pretty much ANY gaming or social site I have ever seen has in it's terms and conditions that this is something you don't do. So for starters he is in breach of his terms and conditions right there.

If she legitimately had his password, then how is it an unauthorised access?

Even Paris knows not to share passwords.

You give out your password, you are essentially giving co-ownership. That person can play your characters, and modify your characters, and do whatever they want... so why shouldn't that be extended to deleting them?

I can understand if she hacked his account, but he GAVE her the password. I think they should ask him why he did that - the answer has to be to share accounts.

He got sharing and everything that came with it.

This is why you should never ever share accounts with anyone. I've been running a mud for over ten years and I have seen hundreds of incidents where one sharer decided to strip an account dry, even between married couples during stressful times in their relationship. You share, too bad is the policy a lot of MMORPGs have.

Paris because she made the same mistake with her videos.

There's something rather fishy about all of this. For deleting a character in an account she had a password for, she gets potentially 5 years in jail?

Ok, in real bricks and mortar property when you give someone the keys of your house, car, etc. and then fall out, you ask for the keys back or change the locks. Otherwise it's not considered breaking and entering, merely trespassing, which isn't as serious a crime, although it can be coupled with intent to cause harm or theft or something like that.

Destruction of the man's property is what should be investigated and if it transpires that the game owners have not included character ownership in the licence terms of the game then the game company owns the character.

If that is the case, then if the rules of the game are similar to other popular online games like the dreaded World of Warcraft then the man broke the rules by sharing his account with someone else and should be banned from the game, thus he would lose his character anyway.

What harm did the woma really do? She accessed something she had been given the means to access by the owner. She deleted data she had access to. Sure if it was malicious it was in bad taste, and it may have been against the rules of the game, but it's the guy's fault for not changing his password and telling her to bugger off.

Also, if someone gets that emotional about being dumped in a video game by another player, from a relationship that wasn't legally recognised then she needs perhaps a psychiatrist and some vallium for a while and then to go out and make some more friends.

Paris cos she lives in her own reality

....for the human race.

Oh, sweet friggin' Jayzus.

Just when I thought Americans were the nuttiest, most fucked-up people on the planet -- here come the goddamn' Japanese again.

Too bad nobody over there's designed a male version of their "companion" lifelike robot. Coulda' saved that lady a world of hurt.

Paris, for the sheer stupidity of it.

She'd probably get less punishment if she'd actually sought him out and killed him!

I'd say this was worth a $20 fine and a caution - if that.

Alien, because, though the Brits have had an alien imposed justice system for years, it's now spreading to Japan.

Our descent into lunacy is complete. Ive never played one of these online games, so I feel like i'm watching strange events unfold in a goldfish bowl every time I see one of these stories. Are they really that captivating and important? Im starting to feel like I must be missing something, but the realy world is still great for me. I originally thought lonely people played these games to get away from the traumas of the real world, but now it seems there is murder, divorce and all that in the virtual world as well.

Oh sod it. Get a life you nutjobs, or stop wasting oxygen that the rest of us could be breathing.

Losers. Massive losers.

I think all parties, cops included, need to spend some quality time in the Total Perspective Vortex.

I mean, it's only an f-ing game, innit.

weirder and weirder.

Need a "WTF?" icon, please.

Virtual Priest says: "I now pronounce you man and wife"

Virtula Priest says: "What you just killed your husband?"

Virtual Priest says: "OFFICER ARREST HER"

Virtual Cop says: "Ma'am your coming with me. Your under the arrest for....umm say WHAT??"

Just me or is he virtual world starting to become more and more real for some then the real world is?

/Dumb ass broad. . .Point made

"She hasn't yet been formally charged, but AP reports she could face a prison term of up to five years in prison or a fine of $5,000 (£3,091) if convicted. ®"

To be served "virtually" of course...

Can she pay the fine with virtual money and have her on-line identity do the bird ?

ALF

You couldn't make it up! This makes Sadville look like real life.

I loved this bit: "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry." Well, it would, dear - it would. Now take your medication.

You have organised crime running free and police actually telling you that they don't want to get involved if you have a problem with the Yakuza (first hand experience) but they have time to waste on this kind of stuff.

Of course arresting a 33 year old women is a lot less dangerous than investigating a yakuza.

anonymous for obvious reasons

like a Woman spurned! >:-)

Still seems a bit fecked'up to toss her in the slammer though when we still have other Hackers on the loose (causing more unrest) sniffing 'round our Politicians dirty knickers though.

I don't know how to close this segment so I'll just pay my final respects to the dearly departed...

Can somebody explain how killing somebody virtually is almost the same as bumping them off in real life?

In my opinion she should go down for murder as this character was obviously the only life this man had!!

A plea to all people who get imersed in virtual worlds.

Please please please, open your front door and step outside. Yes, there is financial meltdown, injustice, cruelty, war and diesease out there, but just look beyond these.

See the delicate majesty of sunlight glinting on raindrops caught on a spider web, or the haunting beauty of early morning mist rolling across a field.

This world is a devistastingly beautiful place, get out there and enjoy it, don't waste your life in some electronic hell.

OK Friday morning philosphy over with.

...'nuff said really..

Mine's the one with the Monty Python script in the pocket..

HAHAHAHAAAA!!!

What a joke - Shouldn't she be virtually arrested if at all?

Standard security policies in companies over here are that you don't, under any circumstances, share your credentials/passwords.

Idiots, the pair of them. Chuck in the rest of these people who live in a second world instead of just having a non-committal game now and then and you have the new breed of geeks and freaks.

Sad.

First, if he gave her his password I don't think she should be charged with anything. The act clearly implies that he is giving her access to his account - he has to accept the consequences of that.

Second, and admittedly based on my first point, why are law enforcement agencies getting involved in this crap. Just glad it isn't happening in the UK, at least it isn't my taxes being burned up over this trivial, haha, affair.

Paris. She can rub me out anytime ;-)))

As a real wife would of deleted the contents of his bank balance. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and all that, Anyway he was the stupid one to have given out his username and password so what did he expect to happen!

Muppet

Pass me coat luv I am heading to the boozer.

So she didn't hack the system at all then, she just used the password that this guy gave her, presumably so that she could access his account at her convenience without bothering him first. If she used her new found influence over virtual hubby's mindset to have him, oh, I dunno - kill himself, the surely that's all fine and dandy...

It's a virtual game dear boy, and if you give someone control of your account, then unpredictabe things might happen - particularly when you introduce a recently ditched and somewhat miffed e-wifey into the equation. If you divorced in real life, you'd want her keys to your home back, wouldn't you? Same thing here - should have changed his password...

And reporting this to the police? I mean, WHY? They should both be taken out back, a bit of a slapping administered, and advised to grow up and get a life...

Nice to see that their plod took the time to investigate this though - contrasts rather with the City Of London police's stance on Phorm, doesn't it?

Martin

Paris, coz she's been painfully split a time or two herself...

Deletion of characters because of hurt feelings?

Punched, kicked, threatened with a knife for a face mask in Runescape?

Maybe games are bad for us...

Or maybe some people need sterilising.

....virtual Film Noir! All we need now are monochrome browsers.

Mine's the Bogart-style trenchcoat...

It's a game. He gave out his password. Ridiculously disproportionate "punishment".

That is all.

All your virtual partners are belongs to us

Now where's my coat

"Surely this can't possibly be real????"

I think we have a Rumsfeld problem here that needs clarification. We have real reals. That's things that really happen in the real world. We have unreal reals. That's unreal things that happen in the real world. We have real unreals. That's things that really happen in the unreal world. Finally we have unreal unreals. That's unreal things that happen in the unreal world.

I think that this is a classic example of an unreal unreal causing a real unreal and having an outcome of an unreal real.

Does it make sense now?

I'd ask for my coat, but I now not only don't know where I left it but I'm not sure if I ever really had one in the first place.

a decent round of brutal online killing in Team Fortress 2? :)

Let me put this into perspective:

"Err hello officer, yeah I was playing Jet Set Willy on my ZX Spectrum and this nasty guys came out of nowhere and took all my lives I want them called to book, right now!"

Bunch of losers, they should all be locked up for the sanity of everyone else!