3pointD.com

According to Xinhua, China’s official news agency, a Chinese man last week became the first person in China’s Guangzhou Province to be punished for stealing virtual property. Xinhua reports that 20-year-old Yan Yifan stole passwords at the MMO publisher where he was employed, and used them to sell US$500 worth of virtual goods. He was fined US$617 last year, but appealed his case to a higher court, which eventually upheld the original decision.

“According to the court, online game players have spent time, energy and money to gain the game’s equipment, imparting value and use value to the virtual goods,” Xinhua reports.

The story goes on to quote an IP rights lawyer in China, who “said he believes the Supreme People’s Court will soon make a specific law to protect virtual property in the future, as long as similar cases continue to be heard by the courts.”

It’s worth remembering here that Xinhua is an official news agency, and often (though not always) chooses their expert sources with an eye toward supporting government policy. Could the bleeding edge of virtual lawmaking lie in the far east?