[IP] : Gamer wins back virtual booty in court battle
-----Original Message-----
From: Denise Caruso <denise@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 06:21:30
To:farber@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Fwd: Gamer wins back virtual booty in court battle
Dear Dave,
I thought this might be of interest to IP'ers.
Denise
>http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994510
A court in China has ordered an online computer games company to return virtual
belongings to a player whose account was hacked and looted.
The Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing ruled last Thursday that the
company must return the player's virtual stash because it had allowed the theft
to take place in the first place.
Li Hongchen, 24, spent two years and more than 10,000 yuan ($1,210), amassing
a cache of virtual money and weapons in the online game Hongyue, or Red Moon.
In February, however, Hongchen found his belongings had been pilfered by a
hacker who gained access through the game's central servers. The software firm
behind the game, Beijing Arctic Ice Technology Development, responded that his
possessions had no real world value and represented only piles of data.
Hongchen took the company to court requesting 10,000 yuan in compensation.
I exchanged the equipment with my labour, time, wisdom and money, and of
course they are my belongings, Hongchen told the Chinese news site Xinhuanet.
[snip]
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