Property Nature And Legal Protection Of Virtual Substance In The Net Game

With network economy coming and knowledge economy rising, a new life space, Cyberspace, has been created as a result of the combination of network technology and knowledge capital, which enriches spiritual products for human beings and under of which, network games are springing up. Chinese network game users in 2006 reached 31.12million, 18.5% more than the previous year. The actual sales of network game market in 2006 was 6.54 billion, 73.5% more than that in 2005. It is reported that profits gained in the global game industry till 2009 will reach 9billion. Meanwhile, the rise of game industry also brings about the booming of telecom industry, service industry as well as entertainment press industry. However, Boom always is followed by potential crisis.Virtual substance, as extension products of network game products, has given rise to more and more disputes and heated endemic discussion. The dissertation starts with the nature and characteristics of games, and then discusses the commercialization process of entertainment function of games. With network technology and virtual reality technology coming into existence, network games creates a more personal interactive space, in which, virtual substance is a kind of objective existence. Through the analysis of western value theory and significance in discussion on value of different periods, the author holds that under knowledge economy, discussion on value theory should put emphasis in serving for the healthy running of knowledge economy and that value theory under knowledge economy should be of diversity and the theory of virtual substance is not a single labor theory of value or utility theory of value but equilibrium theory of value as a result of the combination of production and demand. At the same time, virtual substance has real value in the actual commodity trade shown by concrete statistics. To confirm the economic value of virtual substance is to lay a theoretical foundation for legal property nature of virtual substance and to provide theoretical and factual basis for legal protection of virtual substance.