The court in Beijing ruled on 18 December, 2003 that Beijing Artic Ice Technology Development must return the virtual goods to the player, Li Hongchen. Hongchen had spent two years and over $1,200 (£676) on 'pay-as-you-go' access cards playing the online game "Hongyue" (Red Moon) and had built up an account of virtual money and weapons in his playing account.
In February 2003, Hongchen discovered that his account had been hacked through the game's central servers. He complained to the company but was told that the virtual goods had no real world value. The company also refused to identify the hacker, saying that it could not reveal private details of players, reported Reuters, an international news agency.
The police were unable to help Hongchen who then took the company to court, asking for $1,200 in compensation.
Hongchen said the virtual equipment had been earned with his labour, time, wisdom and actual cash, and therefore belonged to him, according the Xinhua, the Chinese news agency.
The court found the company liable for flaws in its servers that allowed the hacker to access and clean out Hongchen's account. The company was ordered to recreate Hongchen's virtual goods, although it is not clear yet if they will also have to pay him damages or identify the hacker.
Xinhua said the lawsuit was the first virtual property rights dispute case in China. A columnist for TechNewsWorld, a US news Web site, said the Chinese court case appeared to be the first in the world.
However, virtual goods have already been a source of real world conflict. Goods, characters and other features of online games are already regularly traded through online auction sites such as eBay, sold and bought with real money, with actual violence occasionally erupting over online interactions.
An economist from the California State University, Fullerton, estimated the players of popular online game Everquest in the US could earn an average $3.42 an hour for their skills, said the NewScientist.com news service.
In China, online gaming is poised to be serious money. The online gaming industry in China is estimated around $242m this year, and is expected to more than double next year, according to analysts.
