> Now here's a development I never quite saw coming. A man was arrested in Japan because he ran a bot that mugged characters in an online game, stealing items that other people would pay actual money to obtain for their own characters.

From what I read on Slashdot (so take it for what you will), people who played the game said the guy actually got busted for stuff along the lines of computer hacking -- he was apparently running a bunch of proxy servers allowing people from China to access the game (against the user agreement), etc.

That New Scientist article is not very good or informative. I'd take this entire story with a grain of salt.

Stephen