Teens convicted of virtual theftual

A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in a computer game and sentenced them to community service. Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of "virtual goods". The Leeuwarden District Court says the culprits, 15 and 14 years old, coerced a 13-year-old boy into transferring a "virtual amulet and a virtual mask" from the online adventure game RuneScape to their game accounts. "These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law), so this is theft," the court said on Tuesday in a summary of its ruling. Identities of the minors were not released. The 15-year-old was sentenced to 200 hours service, and the 14-year-old to 160 hours. - news24

Oh no.  If they get community service for taking only an amulet and a mask, I'm in serious trouble. I broke into a house, stole a lantern and a sword, found a trap door under a rug, murdered a troll, took a gold coffin, a jewel encrusted egg, a platinum bar ... bar ... bar.. and numerous other valuable items from the Great Underground Empire. I did leave them all in a trophy case, however. So technically, I just moved them around.

How did these teens get the amulet and the mask out of the game and into the real world? I was never able to work that out. Everything I took in Zork always ended up right back where it started each time I played the game again. Zork obviously has a way better virtual security system than RuneScape.