Online Gamer in China Sues, Wins Over Virtual Theft
Posted by Marcel Klum on 21 December 2003 - 09:43 · 15 comments & 1063 views
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Full name: Marcel Klum
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Full name: Marcel Klum
Forum name: Redmak
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: Normal · Headline
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#1 Posted by Duo Maxwell on 21 Dec 2003 - 10:12
- Great, 2 days after I hand in my Uni assignment about avatars in the world and property.
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(2 replies)
#2 Posted by nookadum on 21 Dec 2003 - 10:44
- I played Hongyue when I visited China last year, it's a pretty good game.
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#2.1 Posted by Ji@nBing on 21 Dec 2003 - 13:56
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haha, i played it too. not bad. it's soooo popular there in the netbars. 
BTW, i used to live in chaoyang district
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#3 Posted by Quick Reply on 21 Dec 2003 - 15:29
- Good on ya to the guy that won
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(3 replies)
#4 Posted by Zelpus on 21 Dec 2003 - 16:00
- Now every person that plays a mmorpg is going to be sueing everyone, way to go. People are already sue happy as it is.
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#4.1 Posted by ABC½ on 21 Dec 2003 - 17:39
- Trying to be cool with philo stuff huh? HAHAHA made me laugh...
Come on, the guy spent a lot of money and acquire lots of stuff over years. He "worked" hard to get pieces of equipement he had. And because of lazy server admin, holes in the porgram was exploit and someone lost all.
It's like buying a bullet proof window glass to protect your house, but still someone brakes your window with a bullet and steal your stuff. Whose to blame? The one that sold you your fake bullet proof window.
'nuff said. -
#4.2 Posted by Octol on 21 Dec 2003 - 21:29
- You're right, people are lawsuit happy. But this wasn't a frivolous lawsuit; this was an out-and-out theft, and the agencies that should have remedied the situation—the gaming company and/or the police—did nothing. What other choice did Li Hongchen have?
The easiest remedy would have been for the company to simply return the stolen property to its rightful owner. But instead they did nothing. And by doing nothing, they sent a message to all their customers that it was OK for hackers to steal their assets. An incredibly stupid move on the company's part in my opinion.
Failing action by the company, the police should have acted, but they didn't. And the argument that this property is "just piles of data" is so much bullsh*t. Does anybody think that the "money" they have in the bank is gold or currency? No, it's "just piles of data". Does that this make it OK for hackers to dive right in and help themselves? NOT!
No, in this case the lawsuit was not frivolous and the court did precisely what it was designed to do: administer justice; an increasingly rare occurrence these days.
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(3 replies)
#5 Posted by RanCorX2 on 22 Dec 2003 - 09:45
- people get obsessed with these online games, i mean 2 years..lol. he should get out more.
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#5.1 Posted by ABC½ on 22 Dec 2003 - 12:32
- So what? Some are still playing offline Diablo 1 just because they "enjoy" the game. Enjoying a game, isn't it the first thing you look for in a game?
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#6 Posted by H|LLT0P on 22 Dec 2003 - 14:50
- HELP Someone stole my +4 sword of sishkabob from my EQ account. That's worth about 12 million dollars in Real life, I want my money ...... /sarcasm
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#7 Posted by dougkinzinger on 22 Dec 2003 - 16:51
- LOL Hilltop!
Li Hongchen, 24, had spent two years, and 10,000 yuan ($1,210) on pay-as-you-go cards to play, amassing weapons and victories in the popular online computer game Hongyue, or Red Moon, before his "weapons" were stolen in February, the Xinhua news agency said on Friday.
Li asked the company, Beijing Arctic Ice Technology Development Co Ltd, to identify the player who stole his virtual property, but it declined, saying it could not give out a player's private details, it said. Police also gave Li no satisfaction, so he took his case to court, demanding 10,000 yuan in compensation, Xinhua said.
"I exchanged the equipment with my labour, time, wisdom and money, and of course they are my belongings," it quoted him as saying of the virtual property he collected online.
The company argued that the value of the virtual property only existed in the game and was "just piles of data to our operating companies."
In the end, Beijing's Chaoyang District People's Court ruled on Thursday that the firm should restore the player's lost items, finding the company liable because of loopholes in the server programs that made it easy for hackers to break in.
China's online gaming industry has boomed in recent years. Analysts say it is conservatively forecast to be worth about two billion yuan this year, and is growing more than 100 percent a year.