Doing real time for a virtual crime

The possibilities are endless, witness the latest extension of the internet into the "real" world, this time in Japan: a 43-year-old woman was arrested and jailed after she "... became so angry about her sudden divorce from her online husband that she logged on with his password and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday."

You could look it up or, if you can't be bothered, read all about it in Brennon Slattery's story in today's Washington Post, below.

Woman Jailed for Murdering Avatar

A virtual divorce prompts a virtual world murder — with consequences back in real life.

The line between virtual reality and its flesh-and-blood cousin blurred a little this week as a 43-year-old Tokyo woman was jailed for murdering her virtual ex-husband's avatar.

After she suddenly found herself divorced in "Maple Story," a popular 2-D side scrolling MMORPG, the unidentified woman used her ex-husband's ID and password to log into the game and kill him off. Call it Death by Deletion.

When the man discovered his beloved avatar was gone, he contacted authorities, which led to the woman's arrest. "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning," the woman told investigators. "That made me so angry." The AP reports that the woman had no intention to carry out violence in reality.

The charges are "illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data," which carries a sentence of up to five years in jail or a fine up to $5,000.

This is the first time I've ever heard of real-life authorities getting involved with virtual homicide. While the charges have nothing to do with the avatar's death, but rather the woman's illegal methods of bumping it off, it certainly illustrates how emotionally involving online MMORPGs can be.

....................

More here, here and here.

Tons more where that came from here, should you require more grist for your procrastination mill.

I know you so well — but I digress.

"The straight world didn't end. The straight world and the other world had bled into one another and produced the world that we live in today." — William Gibson, in the superb documentary "No Maps For These Territories."

The Maple Story murder isn't quite "Minority Report" but things are certainly headed in that direction, no?