[DEBATE] : Reality: The final frontier

[peter waterman]

So, Cybertopians, and you thought that Cyberia was a space of freedom, 
creativity, community, love (a bit like socialism)?

But, no, the cash nexus operates here too, and the struggle for 
emancipation: The Long March Through Cyberspace! Building the New Cyberspace 
Within the Shell of the Old!

Etcetera...

PW
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hein Marais" <hein at marais.as>
To: "'debate: SA discussion list '" <debate at lists.kabissa.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 9:23 AM
Subject: [DEBATE] : Reality: The final frontier


'Virtual theft' leads to arrest



A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture
from "rooms" in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.



The 17-year-old is accused of stealing 4,000 euros (£2,840) worth of virtual
furniture, bought with real money. Five 15-year-olds have also been
questioned by police, who were contacted by the website's owners. The six
teenagers are suspected of moving the stolen furniture into their own Habbo
rooms.



A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: "The
accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by creating
fake Habbo websites.



"In Habbo, as in many other virtual worlds, scamming for other people's
personal information such as user names has been problematic for quite a
while.       It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money


Sulake spokesman



"We have had much of this scamming going on in many countries but this is
the first case where the police have taken legal action."



Habbo users can create their own characters, decorate their own rooms and
play a number of games, paying with Habbo Credits, which they have to buy
with real cash.



"It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money. But the
only way to be a thief in Habbo is to get people's usernames and passwords
and then log in and take the furniture.



"We got involved because of an increasing number of sites which are
pretending to be Habbo. People might then try and log in and get their
details stolen."



Six million people in more than 30 countries play Habbo Hotel each month.



Virtual theft is a growing issue in virtual worlds; in 2005 a Chinese gamer
was stabbed to death in a row over a sword in a game. Shanghai gamer Qiu
Chengwei killed player Zhu Caoyuan when he discovered he had sold a "dragon
sabre" he had been loaned.





Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7094764.stm


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