The Legal Protection Of Online Virtual Property

Although the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China clearly stipulates that online virtual property is protected by law,it only mentions it in general terms,and does not cover the specific protection path,scope and degree of virtual property.Too general principle provisions and chaotic and low-level regulations and constraints lead to the lack of operability in judicial practice.Through case search and empirical analysis,it can be seen that the problems have become the current regulatory obstacles in the field of virtual property such as unclear ownership of virtual property,obstacles in the division of shared virtual property,unfair standard terms,different value identification standards of virtual property,lack of compensation system for mental damage,conflict between virtual property inheritance and privacy protection of the deceased,etc.It is urgent to perfect the whole legal regulation system of virtual property.Starting from the concept itself,the scope of "thing" is no longer limited to the physical thing,and the inclusion of "thing" provides the possibility of regulation for virtual property.The online virtual property has the necessary attributes of value,independence,specificity,dominance and exclusivity of "thing",and conforms to the constituent elements and standards of "thing".To explore the optimal positioning of legal attributes of virtual property in terms of function and effect,real right positioning can effectively maintain the stability of the legal system and realize the optimal protection of rights,which conforms to the intention of lawmakers and the expectation of the public.Clarify the property right attribute of virtual property rights in the network,so as to establish the legal regulation path and framework of virtual property in the network,that is,improve the legal protection and regulatory barrier of virtual property in the original property right system,and optimize the supporting regulations in related fields according to the problems in judicial practice,to build the overall regulatory framework network.Through the analysis of the basic rules of real right,it is clear that the online virtual property is originally acquired by the development operator based on the creation and production behavior,and the ownership of the online virtual property is acquired by the user based on registration,customs clearance,upgrade,purchase,donation,inheritance,legacy and other inheritances.The ownership of the online virtual property is judged according to the different stages.When the division of common virtual property is involved and the ownership needs to be determined,the main operator should be considered first.When the main operator cannot be determined or there are multiple mutually balanced operators,the registration party of virtual property can be considered.If the reservation of the ownership of virtual property cannot be comprehensively selected by various factors,the bidding on the compensation amount can play a role in determining the economic interests.The virtual property contract disputes involve the standard terms,so it is necessary to issue the model of the standard terms related to the network platform user agreement,strengthen the supervision and regulation at the source,clarify the review and identification limits and standards of the standard terms in the field of online virtual property by issuing guiding cases and publishing typical cases,and provide the reference basis and guidance for the court’s judgment by typing.In the dispute of compensation for virtual property infringement damages,it is necessary to define the standard for determining the value of virtual property,integrate data resources to establish a virtual property database with the help of specialized appraisal and evaluation institutions,and conduct regular analysis,research and calculation of data from the perspective of user expenditure cost,market price and industry situation,so as to provide stable and specific reference for the amount of property compensation.At the same time,the legitimacy of compensation for mental damage of virtual property is affirmed,and the degree of compensation for mental damage is set up a range of levels to calculate the sum of the compensation amount,so as to form a unified basis for determining the amount of compensation for mental damage of virtual property.In the virtual property inheritance dispute,the affirmation of close relatives’ inheritance right to the virtual property involving personal information and privacy can resolve the conflict between privacy protection and inheritance right,give the parties the right to choose whether to allow the heir to inherit the virtual property involving their personal information and privacy,and ascribe the dominant right of inheritance of virtual property to the decedent itself to avoid conflict at its root.Based on the outstanding problems in our current judicial practice,we seek theoretical breakthrough and system optimization in the field of practice based on the property of real right and framework,crack the stagnant practical barriers and stones,improve the legal regulation system in the field of online virtual property,so as to form an institutionalized and systematic protection mode.