On Network Virtual Property And Related Protection Of Civil Law

With the development of network technology, Internet has been a most important form of amusement and recreation for the modern young people, and the virtual world of Internet is becoming more and more realistic. A large number of problems of Internet are also exposed. All these problems should be solved in reality. How to define the property in the virtual world? Should they be protected? How to protect them? So Network Virtual Property and related Civil Protection, the theme of the thesis is put forward.In the part of the preface of this thesis, the author put forward the problems by the discussion of one classical cases. The case is"Claiming ten thousands for the lost equipment in games and how much the virtual equipment should be makes the judges awkward."One day when Li Hongchen entered the game"Red Moon"with his password, he found his virtual equipment lost. It was difficult to play the game without these equipments. Having no choice, Li Hongchen submitted the case to the court. He sued for the recovery of the virtual equipments and ten thousands Yuan of mental compensation. On the court, both the judges and Li Hongchen felt it difficult to confirm the value of the virtual equipments. According to the latest report, the final judgment decided that the defendant should recover some virtual equipments, but denied the mental compensation. In the case, the judges believe the relationship between the defendant and the Internet user is just like the consumer and the service provider and so the Contract Law and the Law on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests can be used here. But in fact, in the Law on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests the right for the virtual property that the user has is not included in the nine rights of the consumer. So there is still no law to protect the virtual property. There are two different views about the virtual property in Law circles. One view is that the property in the game is totally virtual, which is only the information in the game, just like the point in the sports meeting, which is of no value. On the other hand, more and more specialists and scholars believe that the virtual property is valuable and should be protected by law.First part of the thesis, the definition of Network Virtual Property. This section serves as the description of its conception, character and features. Also, it provides further possibility for discussing network virtual property's quality of Civil Law and related protection system. The following contents are premised on the above-mentioned introduction. The conception of network virtual property includes two parts: the first one means the virtual Internet itself, and the second refers to electromagnetic record which was keeping on Internet and can be regarded as private-owned property. It is a new type digital property and the existing standard of measurement can be applied to its evaluation. By comparing and analyzing its conception prescribed in Civil Law, we may draw a conclusion that the network virtual property has all the basic elements of those. For instance, the value, the rareness, the dominated exclusiveness, the legality etc. So it is no doubt that they are the same in character. On the other hand, network virtual property should be defined differently from general conception of property because of its inclusive virtual Internet environment. It features virtual reality, technology- restriction, flexibility, reproduction and time-limit.Second part of the thesis, the Civil Law quality of network virtual property. Since the conception, character and feature of network virtual property have been clarified, this section brings out the discussion and testification in-depth about the core issue - the quality of Civil Law. As to that issue, there is no enacted law could account for it in our country at present. In theoretic establishment, the scholars are disputing vehemently on this unresolved problem. Three theories are prevailing currently, they are network virtual property's intellectual property rights theory, creditor's right theory and property theory. On assaying those, the unavoidable defects and limits could be seen. According to the former conception of network virtual property, the author conveys a view that the property and the creditor's right both exert great influence on each other, so the network virtual property could be regarded as a mixture with both of the two elements because of the direct domination and dependence the network virtual property features.Third part of the thesis, the Civil Law protection system of the network virtual property. As no enacted law in our country takes effect in this field, the protective measure couldn't be applied accordingly. Thus we should establish and perfect related protection system of Civil Law in order to ensure steady and healthy development of this industry .Our efforts mean to define the character of network victual property in a theoretical way and our purpose is to testify the practical meaning of Civil Law quality of network virtual property. The author suggests the regulations governing the right and liability of the operator and user, also their responsibility should come into effect as soon as possible. The process of establishing the Civil Law protection system of network virtual property could be accelerated by doing so. The network operator acts both as service supplier and network controller. Thus they have a range of relative responsiblities and rights. The operator means the counterpart to the user as stipulated in contract. Their rights and responsiblities are interacting, or in other words, one's right means the other's responsibility, vice versa. The stipulation consists of tort law and elements. The Responsibility principles of tort law for network virtual property should adopt the fault liability, whose elements should include fransgression, reality damaging and their causalty, the actor's fault.