On The Determination Of The Nature Of Stealing Virtual Property

Stealing virtual property refers to the act of transferring a large amount of victim’s virtual property in secret or stealing many times, which takes the illicit possession as the aim and disobeys the will of the victim. This behavior has three features: the first is that the way of act is special; the second is that the behavior object is taking virtual property from a specific account; the third is that the essential feature is accroaching after stealing in secret.There are some controversy about determining the nature of stealing virtual property in theory and in judicature. There are four opinions about it, such as the theory of innocence, the theory of larceny, the theory of offending correspondence freedom crime and the theory of destroying computer information system crime. The theory of innocence think that virtual property has not been described as property in present criminal law, so stealing virtual property should be considered as innocence according to the principle of a legally prescribed punishment for a specified crime. The theory of larceny think that virtual property belongs to special intangible property in our criminal law, so stealing virtual property should be considered as larceny. The theory of offending correspondence freedom crime think that stealing virtual property like QQ number is in accord with the constitution of the crime of offending correspondence freedom, so it can be convicted and penalized as crime of offending correspondence freedom. The theory of destroying computer information system crime think that the nature of stealing virtual property like online game roles and goods is endangering computer information systems, so it should be considered as destroying computer information system crime. Above doctrines have reasons to support it, but also have its’ deficiencies.Virtual property has the feature of property, so it should belong to the public and private properties in our criminal law. Stealing virtual property is implicated in destroying computer information system, and its relationship with offending correspondence freedom is imaginative joinder of offenses. So stealing virtual property should be convicted as larceny. Convicting stealing virtual property as larceny which correspond with the needs for protecting public and private properties has its reasons in theory and practice.