This being the case, why is the story being reported - and posted here, even - as punishment for virtual theft?
Go tell the journalist which was trying to hype something out of nothing.
However, I don't know the language and didn't find the news elsewhere: if the boy actually paid for the items, we can truly talk about stealing and extortion, but the title is still journalist babble as anything with an economic value is a good (and software always has been in the last thirty years).
The interesting bit however is whether virtual goods have value juridically, and thus if one can -apart from violence- also be prosecuted for thievery of virtual goods.
Well, piracy wouldn't be a crime otherwise. Software and data are commonly sold as intellectual property and as such do have economical value, even if it's a futile item on a MMORPG (which after all isn't all that much different from buying a 3D model even though it's only for personal use). It's a bit baffling to read these surprised comments in a forum where most of the people is actually making money (or trying to) out of software, media and the IT industry. however in this particular case, again, I don't think that the goods had much juridical value; however, if the boy paid for the goods and since the distribution method implies that by giving the item to someone else he would not possess it anymore, that's actually extortion which is even worse.