Well, it had to happen. I’m sure you’re familiar with the wide-spread popularity of people being able to live vicariously in a Virtual World, creating a whole new identity, habitat, job, friends, and yes even a lover. Unfortunately, avatars can also have human frailties, like lust, cheating and vengeance!
This sordid story comes to us from Japan (really). It’s virtually impossible to invent a tale like this!
A 43-year-old mild-mannered piano teacher became so angry about the sudden divorce from her virtual husband that she killed him in what was described as an act of cyber revenge!
God, how awful! The virtual crime was carried out while participating in the interactive game "Maple Story". According to authorities, the woman logged onto the game, using her online husband’s (real) ID and passport, and with the click of a button, the guy simply ceased to exist...vanished into the ether!
Don’t we wish we could do this with John McCain? One minute he is saying "I have the experience to be president"; the next, we are saying "What experience? You don’t exist!"
If it could only be that easy. In this case, a crime in the computer-generated world can also be a crime in the real world.
"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," she cried out (really), while being led away in handcuffs.
Now comes the moral question; what should the punishment be? Does a cyber crime call for detainment or deletion?
Well, the woman was arrested (for real) Wednesday, and taken some 620 miles from her home in southern Miyazaki to Sapporo, the home of the (real) man, a 33 year-old office worker, whom she was (virtually) married to (Got that?). There she was placed in a (real) jail on suspicion of illegally accessing a (real) computer and manipulating electronic data, a virtual crime!. Evidently, if convicted she faces up to five years in (real) prison or a fine of up to five thousand (real) dollars.
Of course, the worse punishment of all; she will lose her virtual identity!