A Chinese games company has been ordered by a Beijing court to
replace virtual property stolen by a hacker from a player's on-line
account, according to Reuters. It had taken Li Hongchen two years
and around £750 in pay-as-you-go cards to amass his virtual
weapons.
According to Reuters the hacker broke into Li's account for the
on-line game Hongyue (Red Moon) in February, exploiting a weakness
the server security of the game's creator, Beijing Arctic Ice
Technology Development.
However, the company refused to reveal the private details of
the hacker, although it was another player. It also declined to
replace the stolen items on the grounds that they were not property
in the real world. Li took the matter to court.
The District People's Court ruled on 18th December that Beijing
Arctic Ice was liable for the theft, because it had enabled the
hacker to gain entry to the gaming account through programming
weaknesses in its servers. The company has been instructed to
reinstate the stolen items.
