BEIJING, April 28 (Xinhuanet) -- An Internet game player has filed a lawsuit against a game operator for destroying a sword he used to vanquish villains in cyberspace.

    The Xuhui District People's Court has agreed to hear the city's first lawsuit concerning online property. Last Novemeber, local police refused to charge four men with theft after they stole a game player's account, saying cyber property isn't protected by Chinese law.

    He Yiqi said he registered last June in the No. 6 service area of the game "Mir 3," which is operated by Optisp Communications Development Co Ltd.

    After many hours of playing the game, he earned 140 million units of game money, which he spent buying a powerful sword from another player through an online trading platform provided by the operator in November.

    On November 16, he found the sword had been deleted from his account. After contacting Optisp several times, he was told that the sword was deleted because it was illegally duplicated.

    He is asking the court to order Optisp to give back his sword, which he estimates is worth 1,000 yuan (US$120) in real money, and apologize.

    "I registered the account and played the game following the rules, so I should be viewed as a consumer," He said. "I bought the high-level weapon in a legal way, so how can they delete it without compensation?"

    Game players often sell online property, such as swords, armor and magic powers, at online auction sites such as EachNet for up to 1,400 yuan.

    Optisp said it discovered four swords with the same code in the No. 6 service area, proving the swords were duplicates.

    "Some top-grade players duplicate high-level equipment by copying their programs. Then they sell them to earn money," said Zhang Hua, the attorney for Optisp. "This isn't allowed by the cyber game rules because it will destroy balance in the game."

    All players must sign an agreement when they register with the game agreeing that all duplicates will be deleted.

    "It's unfair to me. How can I know it was a duplicated sword. It was the person who sold me the sword that should be blamed and punished," He said. "The operator should be responsible for protecting consumers' interests by catching the duplicates soon after they are produced," He said.

    Optisp stressed that if the court supports the plaintiff, it will be a disaster for the game operator because all players who use or buy duplicated equipment will claim they are innocent and ask to recover the deleted weapons.

    Legal experts say such cases are likely to become more common as Internet games become more popular.

(Shanghai Daily news)