Can you be arrested for stealing furniture in a virtual world? The source of this question: Philip K. Dick? Nope, NPR:
A teenager faces charges of stealing furniture that doesn't exist. The youth in the Netherlands was on one of those Web sites where you create virtual people to wander around virtual buildings spending what amounts to real money. You pay cash for credits to spend online. The 17-year-old allegedly stole $5,800 worth of imaginary furniture. Real police arrested him. They suspect other teens of receiving the stolen goods.
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Nic McPhee is looking for a solution to an odd problem: a bat died and rotted on some fine furniture, leaving a nasty protein residue.
I'm not bitter about this, honest I'm not, but it does often seem that people who know you very well end u
[This article was originally posted in December, 2006]
The firm Site Specific Design, creates furniture inspired by arthropods (particularly chilopoda), mollusks, and the other critters that live under decaying leaf matter.
In this case the virtual goods were bought with real cash. They are using that angle to go after the people who hacked this virtual world.