Studies On Legal Attributes And Legal Protections Of Virtual Property

Electronic games are produced for entertainment in the beginning and it hasn't been discussed associating with precise law. Nowadays, as this industry developing rapidly, Electronic games, especially network games, give us not only a joyful experience but also a good many of legal problems behind them. A lot of legal disputes about virtual Property right on network games are appearing. Without the legal norms of virtual property, how to deal with these disputes is under discussing.Does virtual property really exist; How it connects to the objective world and is there its own particularity if it exists; Whether virtual property can be treated as property on law; How does the oblige quality the claims of rights on the virtual property; How the civil law protection system of virtual property is built and so on. All the questions are being researched by many scholars.In this paper, these problems listed before were attempted to be analyzed and researched based on legal quality and civil law protection. The main contents of this paper are described below.The first chapter emphasizes the introduction and demonstration on the relation between the virtual property and property. Firstly, the historical background and practice foundation of the network games and virtual property were introduced and the practical technology support of the legal disputes on virtual property rights were discussed by figures. Secondly, the conception and essence of property were discussed. Many different conceptions were introduced by different countries and the essential character of property such as worthiness, Scarcity, Exclusiveness, etc. Thirdly, based on the understanding of property above, this paper defined and characterized the virtual property. The"virtual"was defined, and so did virtual property after comparing different definitions in this field. Based on the clear definition, the characteristics of virtual property were analyzed at the points of general property characteristic and special characteristic. Based on the analysis of general property characteristic, this paper demonstrated that virtual property belongs to property on law and should be protected by law. Based on special characteristic, the virtual, digital and time-limited characteristic of virtual property were proved. Making clear the different between commonness and individuality helps understanding the characteristic of virtual property.The 2nd chapter emphasizes the legal attribute of virtual property, which was the key content of this paper. Firstly, some contestable viewpoints of virtual property in current academe, including real right theory, obligatory right theory, intellectual property right theory and new property theory, were introduced and analyzed. The basic contents and start points of each theory as well as the opposing viewpoints by other scholars and the author were discussed. Secondly, the determination of the legal nature of virtual property was analyzed based on the different theories discussed above. It's suggested that virtual property possesses the crucial character of real right and belongs to real right. Next, the differences of virtual property right, the obligatory right from service contract and props right in single computer game were compared. Virtual property was further understood through the comparison of these approximate rights. The contents and characters of virtual property right, including active contents such as occupancy right, using right, benefit right and disposing right and negative contents such as negative act by others were discussed in detail. The particularities during the employing and the virtual property right itself were pointed out. The 3rd chapter emphasized the reflection of civil law protection for virtual property right in the view of legislation protection and judicial protection. Firstly, practical disputes and legislative status of virtual property were studied in order to demonstrate the necessary of the protection of virtual property right. The disputes between players and the third tortious party as well as players and game operation dealers were compared, especially the disputes about the attribution of virtual property and service contract between players and game operation dealers. At this background, Taiwan of China, Korea and Japan have started the legislation protection. But the corresponding legal norm are still absent in this field in our country. Secondly, the feasibility of civil law protection of virtual property right was demonstrated based on the analyzing of the objective and subjective conditions. Thirdly, making use of the application of recent law and prospect of future legislation, the trend of legislation protection for virtual property was discussed. Lastly, this paper emphasized the reflection for judicial protection of virtual property through the practical judicial protection. Perfecting the value evaluation method of virtual property, establishing the industry self-discipline organization or network arbitral organization, distributing the evidential burden in reason and standardizing the exchange market of virtual property were considering.