Network Virtual Property Legal Protection

Virtual property on Internet, as one kind of new form of property, is characterized as virtuosity, worthiness, realism, legitimacy and limitation of time. With the development of Internet sector, the necessity of protecting the consumers and preservation of public security, it is imperative to do some research on issues such as the legal nature, value, dispute settlement and legitimate improvement of virtual property. This paper analyze the worthiness through some arguments such as the acquirement will be accompanied by labor, the transactions exist in reality, the importance has been exerted by the owner and so on. There are three theories on legal nature of virtual property depending on rights of property, rights of debt, rights of intellectual property, through which I argue that virtual property is one kind of new and intangible rights of property. The disputes involving the virtual property include the theft, fraud, operation, data lost and the account fixed and so on. Under the current legal system, there are three methods of protecting the virtual property: protection by criminal, civil law and administration law. Based upon above analysis, the legal suggestion can be found that board interpretation of Article 75 of Civil Code; a new distinction of tangible property, intangible property, abstract property and virtual property; the establishment of virtual property as the objective of property, and lawmaking of virtual property on Internet.