Week 10 Reflection
In 2005 Qiu Chengwei lent Zhu Caoyuan a virtual sword in the online game Legend of Mir 3. The virtual sword was worth around 473 pounds of real world money. Zhu sold Qiu’s sword and Qiu took the matter to the police. There is no law in China to protect virtual property and the police could do nothing. Qui then went to Zhu’s house and stabbed him in the chest- in the real world.
This news story was written after Qiu received a suspended death sentence.
The overall message of this news story is that more online gamers are taking virtual property disputes to court and that the theft of virtual property is a serious issue. It also outlines the debate surrounding the issue. It quotes an associate law professor at Renmin University of China who apparently said that virtual property should be deemed as private property because players “have to spend time and money for them.” On the other hand ‘a lawyer’ for a Shanghai-based internet game company said that “the weapons were in fact just data created by games providers and therefore not the property of gamers.”
This source is relevant to this unit because it assesses the differentiation between real world and the virtual world. Qiu felt cheated out of what he deemed as his property and fought retribution not on the internet but in Shanghai.
I am aware of the limitations of the source. It is from the BBC website, which is generally considered a reputable news site, but it is also where I found the story that Housework cuts breast cancer risk. The author's name or credentials are not written on the page, and there are no references. There are also no references linked to the quotes or even the names of those who they are quoting. Despite these limitations, the source is still relevant to the unit as it proves the presence of the discourse and debate surrounding the issue of virtual property and virtual justice. It references South Korea which has a section of its police force dedicated to in-game crime. South Korea has had a relatively long history of online gaming and is therefore prepared to deal with these kinds of disputes.
I do not believe this source is enough on its own to support the idea the widespread issues of online crime and the blurring between the 'real world' and the 'virtual world'.
“Chinese gamer sentenced to life”, BBC News, 8 June 2005, available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4072704.stm (accessed 8 October 2010).
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