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Woman collared for murdering ex-husband's avatar

Virtual crimes
Friday, 24 October 2008, 10:31

JAPANESE coppers have arrested a woman for murdering her digital husband in a role playing game after a messy online divorce.

The 43-year-old Japanese woman was so miffed by her sudden online divorce that she bumped off her husband's avatar. Of course they were never really married and therefore never really divorced. In fact the woman was married in real life.

Inspector Knacker of the Sapporo Yard has charged the woman with hacking after she used her virtual husband's identification and password to log onto the interactive game Maple Story and delete his details.

The woman told coppers that she was married online and suddenly divorced, without a word of warning and that made her angry.

She said she had not plotted any revenge in the real world, but if she is convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character.

Rather that chalking it up to experience and stupidity the bloke decided to rat his virtual ex to the fuzz. This is something he would not have been able to do in real life, if he was dead.

Since he lived in Sapporo and she lived in southern Miyazaki, coppers had to pop around and take her from her home and detain her 620 miles away.

It could set a dangerous precedent. It looks like if you kill another player's character in WoW or Counterstrike you can expect a knock on your door from the local coppers wanting to confiscate that virtual axe or looking for the dwarf wot dun the murder. ยต

L'Inq
Star Tribune

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Comments
As if to substantiate...

...that gamers are removed from reality. You should be very concerned about this type of behavior. These are the crackheads that are on the streets.

posted by : Paul, 24 October 2008 Complain about this comment
They mean it

See, when everyone tells you "DO NOT SHARE YOUR ACCOUNT DETAILS" they really do mean it ;)

Sily sod got what he deserved IMO, never tell anyone your login/password

posted by : Wayne, 24 October 2008 Complain about this comment
To be fair...

The problem wasn't that she killed his character in one-on-one combat (which might have been cathartic, and he could probably have resurrected) - it's that she wiped his details, which presumably means it cost him money to renew his membership (or at least time, to restore his character's status). Not that I know how the subscription model for these things works.

It's something between theft and vandalism. Not, obviously, murder.

posted by : Fluppeteer, 24 October 2008 Complain about this comment
...WTF?

You have got to be $#%&ing kidding me. They *arrested* her for this? Get a clue people. So she shouldn't have used the guy's login info without his permission. But he did give it to her, and then after "divorcing" her he failed to change his password. His fault primarily...and a very, very petty offense (in every meaning of the term) anyway.

posted by : Motoman, 24 October 2008 Complain about this comment
It's so funny

Now the guy was obviously kind of an asshole to turn her it but then again she was technically guilty of hacking by accessing an account other then her own without the owners permission. Also his character could have included many upon many hours of work plus money spent on items so it could also be argued as destruction of property. 

All that said it's still funny as hell and I doubt the woman will face more then a fine unless the judge is crazier then she is.

posted by : Tim, 24 October 2008 Complain about this comment
@ Paul

"These are the crackheads that are on the streets" ... On the contrary, it sounds like these particular 'crackheads' are going to be at home, playing some MMORPG or other, rather than cluttering up the streets.

posted by : bluesxman, 25 October 2008 Complain about this comment
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