Research On Stealing Virtual Property Legal Issues

Virtual property is a new product which gradually formed along with the rapid developmentof internet and the emergence of the network virtual community, it mainly appears in the virtualspace which takes advantage of web server to run, for example, online games, etc. Virtual propertyis a kind of electromagnetic data which utilizes the web server as its carrier, exists in the form ofdigital and can be dominated and applied by the internet users. Virtual property does not have thephysical format of the substantial property, nevertheless has the similar properties andcharacteristics with it. Due to the particularity of virtual property, there is a divergence over thisproblem in many scholars, and also makes some new crimes sprung up on the virtual propertyemerge. All of these cause the extensive concern of the public and strong vigilance of the legists.About crime on virtual property including the robbery, fraud, theft of virtual property, etc, thisserous of criminal behaviors on virtual property should accelerated the standardizing andperfecting of relevant laws and regulations of countries, but until today still no clear rules andregulations showed up in China mainland. Research on virtual property crime in countries in theworld began in the1990s, the relevant legislation is far lagging behind the advanced networktechnology, only Switzerland, the United States, South Korea and Chinese Taiwan area and so on afew countries and regions have relevant legislations on virtual property problems, these countriesand regions are clear about the point of view that virtual property in the online game has the value,but these regulations are not impeccable, inevitably have some defects. It is a fact that the laggedregulation can’t solve the rampant virtual property crime, however the author thinks, in ourcountry, the root cause is that scholars don’t have agreement on about the problem of the“property” of virtue property, and so can’t make conviction and sentencing systematically to theseproblems. This article only aims at one aspect of the virtual property crime——legal question ofstealing virtual property to promote the protection of virtual property and its holders，acceleratethe legislative process, improve the legal system. The author starts from the definition of virtualproperty to introduce the classification of virtual property and similarities and differences betweenvirtual property and property, further illustrates the nature of virtual property by means ofdiscussing the problem of the “property” of virtue property, expounds whether virtual propertytheft behavior constitutes a crime and what crime it constitutes, at last summarizes the full text andmakes the author’s personal views and opinions clear.