In-Game Thieves Should Be Treated Like Real Criminals, According to UK Politician
Gabriel Roşu / 10 years ago
Mike Weatherly, Conservative MP in the UK, is said to have brought up a new initiative. He wants to prosecute in-game thieves like real criminals, which is really disturbing news.
The UK Politician is said to be a World of Warcraft player himself and ‘understands’ that in-game items can be traded for substantial amounts of real world money. Therefore, he as called upon the parliament to consider prosecuting account hackers and in-game scammers like real world criminals.
It is said that the initiative is not outside the ‘realm’ of possibility, having game hackers being arrested and jailed in other countries before. Last year, a group of Chinese World of Warcraft account hackers were prosecuted and jailed and there is world that last week, a League of Legends hacker has been jailed for hacking in to Riot servers and stealing premium services, earning him around $1000 a day.
The Conservative MP has requested that the UK Justice Department consider establishing the law urgently to give gamers the same amount of legal protection over digital items as they already have in the real world. Weatherly added that only serious or repeated offenders should be targeted rather than just anyone found guilty of committing a minor felony.
Digital items are now considered to be in the grey area, but the fact still remains that some of them might be worth a lot of money and can take a long time to acquire. However, the law can also backfire and have gamers under surveillance and booked for just ‘having fun’. What the outcome from the above mentioned law will be is everyone’s guess.
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