Virtual property, how to get tangible protection

2023-02-20

A few days ago, an entry that said "players have returned 40000 yuan worth of equipment to be recycled" hit the hot spot. It turned out that an online game player's valuable props in a certain online game were all confiscated by the system, and these props could be sold for at least 40000 yuan. On January 30, the China Consumer Association announced "the top ten hot spots of public opinion on consumer rights protection in 2022", including "disputes over virtual property infringement caused by online game service suspension and file deletion". In the information age, relying on the increasingly mature Internet information technology, virtual property has increasingly entered people's vision, such as the online stores people visit daily, the short video accounts they watch, and the game skin equipment props. These Internet products have become an important object of people's daily consumption and entertainment. Because of its economic and spiritual value, the protection of virtual property is becoming increasingly important. The Civil Code stipulates: "If the law has provisions for the protection of data and network virtual property, it shall be in accordance with its provisions." Although it is a simple sentence, it is of great significance because it fills the gap in the protection of virtual property in China's law, establishes the "identity" of network virtual property, and clarifies that network virtual property has the value independent of other network resources or real property, The network virtual property will be formally included in the scope of legal protection. Virtual property has practical value. With the development of the Internet economy, economic activities and property are increasingly showing the virtual characteristics of the Internet. As a product of the development of the Internet economy, the importance of intangible assets relying on virtual networks has become increasingly prominent. "Tangible property and intangible property together constitute personal property. As an intangible property, online virtual property is part of personal property." Zhou Hui, deputy director of the Network and Information Law Research Office of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that virtual property is an asset with economic value, including game currency, game equipment, game characters, and game accounts in online games, It also includes other properties that can be converted into real wealth in the online virtual space, such as virtual currency, various electronic consumption vouchers, e-mail, registered domain names, online stores, We-media accounts, etc. The value of virtual property is also expressed as having the economic value of realization. In 2019, the first case of WeChat official account segmentation caused by partnership dispute in China, the second instance of Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court clarified the legal attribute of the virtual property of WeChat official account, and believed that as an information release platform, WeChat official account, relying on its fan base, has become an important carrier for various market entities to release commercial advertisements, with realistic economic value. In July 2019, the Hangzhou Internet Court affirmed the legal status of Bitcoin as a virtual property, believing that although Bitcoin does not have the legitimacy of currency, it should be affirmed as a virtual property, commodity attribute and corresponding property rights and interests. Nowadays, many virtual properties have become tradable goods, and have explored and formed a relatively mature trading mechanism in practice. Online game props have been frequently seen in major auction websites, and the popular non-homogeneous token (NFT) digital collections have attracted much attention. Zhou Hui said that with the deepening of the new generation of information technology and real life represented by digitalization, networking and intelligence

Edit:Hou Wenzhe    Responsible editor:WeiZe

Source:guangming net

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