The Research Of Legal Issues Of Virtual Property

In recent years，with the popularity of the network in China，there are lots ofdisputes of networks which make the confirmation and protection imperative. Theresearch of legal issues of virtual property makes us more clearly know the problem inthe network game，and protect it by laws. Virtual property has the branch of broadsense and narrow sense. The narrow sense of virtual property refers to property thatcan be exchange with the real-world currency in some form and has a certain valuewhich created by human’s labor value. Laws need to protect the virtual propertybecause in a certain extent the narrow sense of virtual property has been beyond thevirtual world. And it is linked with the real world. In order to protect the virtualproperty，we have to understand the legal and property attribute of virtual property.Virtual property legal has some characteristics like the virtual and reality，finitenessand legitimacy. It has always been the emphasis and difficulty whether virtualproperty belongs to the legal property and whether it is controlled by the people as areal right. The expert opinions vary. There are property theory， debttheory， intellectual property theory and new rights of the legal attribute of virtualproperty. But each theory has its own defect，and I will analysis them.I believe that virtual property belongs to the citizens’ legal property and it needsthe protection of the law. The virtual property exists in the network in the form ofbinary code and it is characterized by electromagnetic records. It is objective and true.Game players can use it，donation it，transfer it and so on. So the virtual property isspecified. At the same time it is independent. Each user controls the virtual propertyby operating its own account. They don’t disturb each other and rely on each other.I also analyze the legal relationship between the operators of the network andplayers. It is actually a kind of basic service contract relationship. Network gamesplay an important role on the development of the market economy along with theprevalence of network games. And the disputes and legal issues of network virtualproperty also increased. Finally I give some suggestions of virtual property such asconfirm the legal status of virtual property and specify the obligations of proof ofoperators and so on.