Arrest for "Virtual Theft..."

In an interview in this month's anniversary issue of "Rolling Stone," futurist William Gibson said: "...One of the things our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real, the virtual from the real."
Based on a recent BBC story the future has already arrived for some. A Dutch teenager was recently arrested for stealing "virtual furniture" from rooms at the virtual "Habbo Hotel."
A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: "It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money and we have had to take legal action quickly."
Six million people in more than 30 countries play Habbo Hotel each month.
Virtual theft is a growing issue in virtual worlds; in 2005 a Chinese gamer was stabbed to death in a row over a sword in a game.
Shanghai gamer Qiu Chengwei killed player Zhu Caoyuan when he discovered he had sold a "dragon sabre" he had been loaned.