Virtual property rights are not "virtual", and legislative protection is imperative

2023-03-31

There are many disputes over virtual property, and there is currently no unified standard for defining the ownership of virtual property. At the same time, due to the lagging nature of law formulation, the continuous emergence of new things and technologies on the Internet, and the increasingly rapid generation cycle, the conditions and details of each case are different, and may also involve other departmental laws. Therefore, there are still difficulties in legislative issues. The topic of "players retreating with 40000 worth of equipment being recycled" recently hit the hot spot, once again sparking public concern about the protection of virtual property rights. In late March, Fu Jian, the director of Henan Zejin Law Firm, said in an interview with a reporter from Science and Technology Daily that although virtual property exists in virtual networks, it itself has property rights and attributes and should be protected by law. The reason why virtual property disputes have repeatedly occurred is that a player recharged an online game account with 230000 yuan and placed equipment and props in a business he opened in the game. Due to not logging into the game for a period of time, the firm closed down, and all of these props were confiscated by the system. The game customer service said that "more than one person encountered the situation where the props were confiscated due to the closure of a business, and the props could not be returned or exchanged." These seemingly virtual game equipment were actually obtained by players by recharging them. How to define and protect the rights of virtual property losses has become the focus of attention from all walks of life. In recent years, with the widespread integration of the new generation of information technology represented by digitization, networking, and intelligence with real life, the proportion of online virtual property in people's property has been increasing. Meng Bo, a lawyer from Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, believes that online virtual property belongs to a category of intangible assets, including self media accounts, online stores, online gaming equipment, game characters, and virtual currency. Although intangible, virtual property has economic value. "Tangible property and intangible property together constitute personal property, and online virtual property, as an intangible property, is a part of personal property," said Zhou Hui, deputy director of the Network and Information Law Research Office of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Nowadays, many virtual properties have become tradable commodities, and mature trading mechanisms have been explored and formed in practice. Online game props are frequently seen on major auction websites, and the popular non homogeneous token (NFT) digital collection has attracted much attention. Zhou Hui stated that with the in-depth and extensive integration of the new generation of information technology represented by digitization, networking, and intelligence with real life, the value of virtual property will further increase in the proportion of people's property, and its significance for the public, society, and the country will become increasingly important, involving not only the new private property of citizens, but also the new commercial wealth of enterprises, as well as national financial security and social stability. However, the current supervision of virtual property in China is still not perfect, and some online gaming companies have frequently infringed on the rights and interests of players. Legal disputes related to the protection of online virtual property are by no means individual cases. In the "Top 10 Public Opinion Hotspots for Consumer Rights Protection in 2022" released by the China Consumer Association in early 2023, "Online game suspension and file deletion trigger virtual property infringement disputes" is prominently listed. Industry Calls for Speeding up Special Legislation In fact, China has relevant laws for the protection of online virtual property

Edit:Ying Ying    Responsible editor:Jia Jia

Source:digitalpaper.stdaily.com

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