Virtual Family Law

28 October 2008

Some of the stories about family law which we at Inksters come across are certainly varied and occasionally stretch the imagination.

However, one particular family law story caught our eye recently.

A woman was arrested in Japan and landed in jail in Sapporo after she allegedly killed off her virtual husband in the popular online game, MapleStory. Apparently, the 43-year-old piano teacher was livid at finding herself suddenly divorced by her virtual husband.

Police have reported that, on finding she was virtually divorced, she illegally accessed log-in details of the man who played her husband, and killed off his character. Presumably, she was unable to find out how to cut off any virtual parts of his virtual anatomy. No doubt, the man involved, while bereft of his on-line character, is understandably relieved that his marriage was virtual, and not real. The police seemed sufficiently worried about the matter spilling over into reality and detained her in a cell 1000km away from her home town, where the nervous ‘husband’ works.

The last we heard is that the woman is in jail awaiting word as to whether or not she is to face charges of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating data. If convicted, she could serve up to five years in prison and a large fine.

If she had come to us, we would have given her some ’real’ advice for her ’virtual’ predicament.

We’ll let you know if we find out how she got on.