Virtual items, real theft

An interesting contrast to the case below, a Dutch court has held that tricking someone into giving up digital items in the online game RuneSpace amounted to the theft of those items — a concept generally more relevant to the physical world.

(I recall a reasonably relevant discussion back in 2007, on whether the offence of rape could be committed in an online environment; here's an analysis of the Belgian decision to prosecute, and an interesting view on it.)