Virtual Theft, Real-World Punishment

This would never happen in New York; the police are otherwise occupied. But in Holland, where obviously there's less real-world policing to do, a Dutch teenager, age 17, was arrested in real life for stealing virtual furniture in a virtual world.

The scene of the crime was a web site called Habbo Hotel, a world-building space that's much like Second Life, only it's designed for teenagers. Habbo has a worldwide audience of 82,000,000 registered users between the ages of 12 and 18 and 400,000,000 page views a month.

You can join the site for free, but to do anything of any substance with the other Habbos you need to spend real money. You buy Habbo credits that buy virtual stuff like furniture. Even Target and Rite Aid sell Habbo prepaid cards.

According to The Guardian this was not a solo couch heist. The stolen virtual goods are valued at over $5,800. While the method is not entirely clear yet, it seems that the teen (a group of other boys are being questioned about the incident as well) managed to trick Habbo-ers into giving up their passwords by creating fake Habbo web sites and having kids register there. The stolen passwords were used to infiltrate their Habbo Hotels and swipe the goods. Where did the stolen goods surface? Inside the boy's own Habbo Hotel, of course.

The analysts say that by the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a "'second life,' but not necessarily in Second Life." And there's lots of cash being spent to buy virtual cash to spend in virtual lives. So far, the notion of theft of property in the virtual world remains largely untested.

What do you think? If you steal in the virtual world, doesn't it make sense to be tried in the virtual world as well? Should Habbo simply have given back the furniture to the rightful owners and banned the boy from the site? Should the real-world police be working virtual beats?

For more coverage read the BBC report or see Ars Technica for a look at other virtual world thefts.