Rights Restrictions On Virtual Game Property Transaction

The popularity of the Internet has promoted the development of the game industry and raised the public’s awareness of rights.Game operators and players are the two main subjects involved in virtual game property,and there is inevitably a conflict of interests in the process of transaction.Looking at large game operators at home and abroad,we can find that they often use their dominant position to restrict the rights of players in virtual game property transactions by requiring them to agree to the format clauses in order to maximize their own interests.The attitude of players has also changed from being at their mercy at the beginning to being bold enough to challenge unfair restrictions of rights in the terms and conditions.The lack of relevant laws and the different academic views have led to the different legal nature and attribution of virtual game properties in practice,and the lack of regulation of rights restrictions in transactions.Various types of virtual game properties have special characteristics,and it is difficult to reconcile the contradictions between the two interested parties by applying general laws.This paper discusses various types of virtual game properties from the restriction of resale right and refund right of operators to players,and explores how to regulate unreasonable right restrictions by law,while balancing the rights of both operators and players in virtual game property transactions.This paper is divided into three parts:The first part makes a theoretical analysis of virtual game property transactions,clarifies the definition and classification of virtual game property,summarizes that its transactions are virtual,dependent and value-added by players,which are more special compared with other transaction types,and analyzes the doctrines of different legal attributes and attribution,and concludes that virtual game property is a new type of property and should be attributed to players.The second part summarizes the current situation of rights restrictions in virtual game property transactions.Combining the domestic and foreign legislation and judicial situation,it draws out the attitudes of different regions towards the operators’ restriction on the resale and refund rights of players’ virtual game property in virtual game property transactions,and analyzes the current problems in the operators’ restriction on players’ rights and the problems existing in the law in regulating them,including the unclear attributes and attribution of rights,the unreasonable restrictions on resale and refund,and the principle of freedom of contract makes it difficult to guarantee the rights of players.The third part proposes legal regulation for the problems in virtual game property transactions,clarifies the legal attributes and attribution of virtual game property,divides and classifies different virtual game property,and sets time nodes to judge whether it can be transferred.The refunds should be judged according to whether the use of virtual game property has an impact on other players,whether it is a blind draw,the purchased time and other perspectives,so as to establish a transfer and refund mechanism that can balance the interests of operators and players in the transaction of virtual game property.For games that are about to be shut down,all refunds are not available.Players can also make full use of the right of association and establish player associations to improve the negotiation ability with operators and reduce the strength gap between the two sides.Establish a public disclosure system for operators to close their services,and while affirming operators’ right to shut down their services freely,reduce the risk of players’ virtual game property loss by forcing operators to publicize their shutdown games.