Virtual Crime

1
Virtual Crime

• By Alisha Kloc

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Virtual Crime

• Wikipedia Virtual crime or in-game crime refers
  to a virtual criminal act that takes place in an
  MMORPG. The huge time and effort invested into
  such games can lead online "crime" to spill over
  into real world crime, and even blur
• the distinctions between the
• two. Some countries have
• introduced special police
• investigation units to cover
• such "virtual crimes".

3
Breaking It Down

• virtual (American Heritage Dictionary of the
  English Language, Fourth Edition)
• Existing or resulting in essence or effect though
  not in actual fact, form, or name the virtual
  extinction of the buffalo.
• Existing in the mind, especially as a product of
  the imagination. Used in literary criticism of a
  text.
• Computer Science Created, simulated, or carried
  on by means of a computer or computer network
  virtual conversations in a chatroom.
• crime (The American Heritage Dictionary of the
  English Language, Fourth Edition)
• An act committed or omitted in violation of a law
  forbidding or commanding it and for which
  punishment is imposed upon conviction.
• Unlawful activity statistics relating to violent
  crime.
• A serious offense, especially one in violation of
  morality.
• An unjust, senseless, or disgraceful act or
  condition It's a crime to squander our country's
  natural resources.

4
Come again?

• Virtual crime is real
• Unlawful activity created,
• simulated, or carried on by
• means of a computer or
• computer network
• Just because theres no physical substance
  doesnt mean its not real
• Trespassing, theft, BE, willful destruction of
  personal property, etc

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Examples, please?

• Computer characters mugged in virtual crime spree
• Will Knight, 8.18.05, NewScientist.com
• Virtual retailers decry Second Life crime wave
• Eric Reuters, 2.7.08, Reuters Second Life
• Does Virtual Reality Need a Sheriff?
• Reach of Law Enforcement Is Tested When Online
  Fantasy Games Turn Sordid
• Alan Sipress, 6.2.07, Washington Post

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Virtual crime, real profit

• For virtual crime victim Eckert, virtual
  crime isnt a game. Running a successful Second
  Life store is a full-time career for the
  Nuremberg, Germany native, and he makes a
  comfortable living doing it. Our sales dropped
  75 percent in a week, he said of his battle
  against content pirates. (Reuters, 2008)
• About US1.4 million dollars circulates through
  Second Life every day, but there are no police to
  investigate crimes or laws for them to enforce.
  (Reuters, 2008)

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Running afoul of laws

• Earlier this year, one animated character in
• Second Life, a popular online fantasy world,
• allegedly raped another character. Police in
• Belgium, according to newspapers there,
• opened an investigation into whether a crime
• had been committed. No one has yet been
• charged.
• Then last month, authorities in Germany announced
  that they were looking into a separate incident
  involving virtual abuse in Second Life after
  receiving pictures of an animated child character
  engaging in simulated sex with an animated adult
  figure. Though both characters were created by
  adults, the activity could run afoul of German
  laws against child pornography, prosecutors said.
  (Sipress, 2007)

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Virtual crime to jail time

• A man has been arrested in Japan on suspicion of
  carrying out a virtual mugging spree by using
  software "bots" to beat up and rob characters in
  the online computer game Lineage II. The stolen
  virtual possessions were then exchanged for real
  cash.
• The Chinese exchange student was arrested by
  police in Kagawa prefecture, southern Japan, the
  Mainichi Daily News reports. (Knight, 2005)

9
Money breeds crime

• Ren Reynolds, a UK-based computer games
  consultant and an editor of the gaming research
  site Terra Nova, says the growing number of
  online game players will only increase the
  incentive for scammers. "There's nothing
  exceptional about the virtual world," he says.
  "Wherever there is that sort of money, there's
  always crime too."
• Bruce Schneier, a renowned computer security
  expert, adds that the distinction between virtual
  and real crime is rapidly disappearing. He points
  to recent reports of crooks trying to hack into
  games or steal players account information to
  make cash.
• "I regularly say that every form of theft and
  fraud in the real world will eventually be
  duplicated in cyberspace," Schneier wrote on his
  weblog. "Perhaps every method of stealing real
  money will eventually be used to steal imaginary
  money, too."

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References

• Knight, Will 8.18.05, NewScientist.com
  Computer characters mugged in virtual crime
  spree
• http//www.newscientist.com/article.ns?iddn7865
• Reuters, Eric 2.7.08, Reuters Second Life
  Virtual retailers decry Second Life crime wave
• http//secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2008/02/07/v
  irtual-retailers-decry-second-life-crime-wave/
• Sipress, Alan 6.2.07, Washington Post Does
  Virtual Reality Need a Sheriff?
• http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic
  le/2007/06/01/AR2007060102671.html
• American Heritage Dictionary
• http//dictionary.reference.com
• Virtual Crime
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_crime