Discussion On The Legal Attribute And Protection Of Virtual Property

Virtual property issues have come into our vision for many years. The legal attribute, related legal nexus and protection of virtual property are discussed in the academic world. But, there still are a lot of problems unsolved not only in the academic world but also in the juridical practice. This paper will analyze these problems one by one.First, we will start from the concept of "property". We will analyze the scope of property in civil law, and get the conclusion that virtual property has the three attributes of property in civil law, which is usefulness, scarcity and negotiability. Thus, we’11 come into the conclusion that virtual property is one kind of property in civil law. On this basis, we will have a further analyze about the connotation of virtual property, and compare virtual property with some similar concepts, including property in network, intangible property, etc. At the same time, we will introduce two different views about the scope of virtual property, which is a narrow and a broad theory of virtual property.After the discussion of how to define virtual property, we will analyze its legal attribute. In this chapter, we will introduce five different views on the legal attributes of virtual property, and analyze each of them.In order to protect virtual property better, we will analyze the legal relations involved around virtual property. On this basis, we can determine how to investigate responsibility.After the theoretical analysis, we’11 return to the legislative and juridical practice, to see the current status of the protection of virtual property. We’11 analyze a series of real cases in judicial practice, point some of the problems which arise out, and give out appropriate analyze and solutions.At the end of the paper, we’11 analyze how to improve the legal protection system of virtual property, thus trying to get to a conclusion. We will compare two different kind of legislative models and find their own merits, and then suggest a third solution, which is judicial interpretation. By judicial interpretation, we can use the existed laws to protect virtual property, and the introduction of special processing program aiming at the particularity of virtual property will both help to protect virtual property better, and to maintain the cyberspace order.