Research On Criminal Law Regulation Of Illegally Obtaining Virtual Property

The transformation of information technology has changed the form of economic development,and the value of virtual property is increasingly prominent.At the same time,criminal cases targeting virtual property are increasing day by day.In terms of legislation,the protection provisions for virtual property in China’s Criminal Law and related judicial interpretation are not perfect;In the field of criminal law,there have been many controversies over the issues related to virtual property crimes,and there are supporters for both computer crimes and property crimes;In judicial practice,the phenomenon of "same case with different sentences" is prominent.Therefore,studying the legal attributes,value determination,and characterization of illegal acquisition of virtual property is conducive to unifying the application of law and judicial rules,and promoting judicial fairness.The paper is divided into three parts,in addition to the introduction and conclusion.The first part mainly categorizes and sorts out 103 effective judicial documents related to illegal acquisition of virtual property.It can be seen that there are differences in the scope of virtual property between the practical and academic circles.There are also differences in the conviction of the same type of virtual property,and there are situations where infringement is carried out by the same means but the evaluation of criminal behavior is different.The disputes related to virtual property crimes in practice are mainly reflected in the disputes over whether virtual property can be regarded as "property" in criminal law,the selection of charges for computer crimes and property crimes,and the determination of the value of virtual property.The second part conducts a theoretical analysis of the controversial focus of virtual property based on existing theoretical foundations.Firstly,in terms of legal attributes,one cannot only focus on the technical attributes of virtual property while neglecting its financial attributes.Virtual property has property rights attributes in civil law,and based on the principle that criminal law should be consistent with civil law,it is reasonable to consider it as "property" in criminal law;The connotation of virtual property and data is not consistent.Virtual property meets the characteristics of "property" and has property attributes.Interpreting virtual property as "property" is not an analogy,and does not violate the principles of legality and restraint in criminal law;Secondly,in terms of legal application,only applying computer crimes may lead to issues such as loopholes in punishment and inappropriate criminal responsibilities,while applying property crimes is more conducive to protecting private legal interests.When the act of infringing on virtual property violates both computer crimes and property crimes,the criminal act should be recognized according to the more severe punishment.Thirdly,in terms of value determination,there are shortcomings in the traditional method of determining the amount of crime.In practice,it is difficult to accurately evaluate the value of virtual property through inconsistent methods,and there is an urgent need to establish a reasonable and efficient value determination mechanism.The third part provides suggestions for resolving disputes related to virtual property crimes.Firstly,we should clarify the property attribute of virtual property in criminal law through judicial interpretation,so that the constitutive model of property crimes can be applied to such crimes;At the same time,virtual property is defined through four evaluation criteria: "management possibility","transfer possibility","value",and "correspondence with real monetary value",to clarify which virtual property belongs to virtual property.Secondly,the qualitative logic of virtual property crimes should be elaborated within the framework of a syllogism,with the composition of the crime as the "major premise" and the four evaluation criteria of criminal facts and virtual property as the "minor premise".Comparative analysis should be conducted to draw conclusions,and appropriate regulatory paths should be selected based on different ways of illegal acquisition and types of virtual property.The third is that the value determination of virtual property should be based on the different types of virtual property and appropriate determination methods should be selected.At the same time,professional appraisal institutions should be established and courts should set up restrictions on the non-acceptance of appraisal results,promoting the standardization and specialization of virtual property value determination.