Yesterday, my colleagues Michael Gartenberg, Nate Elliot and I did a Juptel on portable media players and digital media. Our primary focus was music, photos and video.

A friend of mine forwarded this article to me yesterday. I don't usually blog about games or digital assets of this nature as they are not in the wireless domain, but I thought it was an interesting article. Less extreme, but well known examples of digital assets being stolen have popped up here in the United States – Paris Hilton's contact list, the rockstar's video, etc.

Qui Chengwei stabbed Zhu Caoyuan in the chest when he found out he had sold his virtual sword for 7,200 Yuan (£473).

The sword, which Mr Qui had lent to Mr Zhu, was won in the popular online game Legend of Mir 3.

Attempts to take the dispute to the police failed because there is currently no law in China to protect virtual property.

Appeal plea

Buying and selling gaming artefacts such as imaginary weapons is a booming business on the web.

The internet games section of Ebay saw more than $9m (£5m) in trades in 2003.

While China has no laws to deal with the theft of virtual property, South Korea has a section of its police force that investigates in-game crime. (BBC)