Japanese woman faces jail for ‘murder’ of virtual husband
October 24th, 2008 by Colin Temple
In Japan, a 45-year-old woman is facing the possibility of jail time or a hefty fine over the “murder” of her virtual husband.
The couple had been married in the MMO Maple Story, but after the husband virtually divorced her, she logged into his account and deleted his character.
“I was suddenly divorced - without a word of warning. That made me so angry,” she said, according to police officials. Enraged, she accessed his account using his own username and password and deleted his avatar.
She was arrested for “illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data”, The Guardian reports.
If convicted, she could face a fine of nearly $5000 U.S. or even up to five years of jailtime.
I agree that doing something like this should have a consequence. Unauthorized access of any electronic account, and deletion of data, is a serious crime. It does serve as a reminder not to give out your username and password to services like this, though — and to change it if you’ve got a potential security risk.
But at the same time, wow. Jail time does seem like overkill for something like this.
#1 Robert K.
October 25th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
While I like the thought that some form of law enforcement is finally being open to protect users of online products, this seems way overboard…
#2 m goode
October 29th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I’ve seen some SWEET mobile gaming content for the motorola krave recently (motorola.com/krave). It has a flip WITH a touch screen, so most of the gaming controls can be accessed without even flipping the phone open. Definitely worth checking out by any serious gamer, especially this lady. =)
#3 Colin Temple
October 29th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I hope Motorola is paying well for all these blog comments. I keep seing them on a few of my blogs, advertising their recent phones. My impressions of that comany are declining now, and I can only laugh at their social marketing strategy.
Obviously these are spam comments. Yes, you’ve related it to my post, which is better than most, but it’s just not natural. I maintain that Motorola phones (like most mobile phones) are pretty horrible for gaming. The iPhone is a big step towards better games, but if you want games on the go you’re still better off with a DS or PSP.
#4 Havohej
November 1st, 2008 at 9:01 am
I heard about this story a few days ago, myself. While I agree that there should be some manner of accountability for real eCrimes, what this woman did does not constitute a crime. In every MMO game I’ve ever played, the EULA has forbidden account sharing. Thus, in every case where somebody accessed another user’s account with freely given username/password information and tampered, the game cited the EULA, told the ‘victim’ “Your fault, we’re not going to help you; by the way, banned for account sharing, have a nice day!”
That’s what should’ve been done here, not prosecution in a real legal court… ridiculous.
#5 R.T.
December 28th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Although I do belive that law enforcment for these kinds of games I also belive that this is a little over tho top.
I mean he can alwys make a new one! My friend had someone she didnt even know hack into her email and whoever it was did something to break some of yahoo’s rules and her email got deleted and she had to tell all her friends and family that her email got deleted and she had to make a new one.
#6 Colin Temple
December 28th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Sure, you can make a new character, but it’s a bit different than an email account.
MMOs take a long time to play, so if the guy’s invested much time into his character/avatar in the game, he’s not going to get that back any time soon. It’s like having your college paper lost/deleted after you’ve written most of it, or having the power go out when you get to the last boss on an old, pre-save NES game… there’s the loss of time there. This guy can make a new character and tell his friends, but he still has to start back at level 1.