Criminal Law Determination Of Theft Of Virtual Property

There have always been two views to define the concept of virtual property: broad sense and narrow sense.Virtual property is a kind of special thing that exists in cyberspace and can be owned and controlled by network users.Virtual property has three characteristics: value,controllability and virtuality,and none of them is indispensable.There are four mainstream views on what is the legal attribute of virtual property.This paper agrees with the view of real right.The legal nature of virtual property is real right.There are two reasons: first,the owner of virtual property enjoys the four rights and powers of possession,use,income and disposal stipulated by law;second,virtual property also has dominance and exclusiveness.These two characteristics are the fundamental characteristics of real right.There are various forms of virtual goods in social life.In this paper,virtual goods are classified into account number,goods and currency.In a broad sense,property is divided into tangible,intangible and property interests.This paper holds that the virtual property belongs to the intangible property,but in the trial practice,some courts take the virtual property does not have the property nature as the judgment reason.From the three aspects of the existence form,value and others of virtual property,the virtual property belongs to property,and the virtual property has indirect dominance and replication cost-free,and belongs to the intangible property in the property.The act of stealing virtual property seriously infringes on the legal interest of criminal law.To regulate the crime through criminal law can prevent or restrain the occurrence of such crimes.Therefore,the theft of virtual property should be regulated by criminal law.On the one hand,since the use of criminal law to regulate the theft of virtual property is reasonable,then how to convict? There are two kinds of views in the theoretical circle,that is,theft or illegal access to computer information system data crime.This paper analyzes the objective class and the subjective class,and thinks that the theft of virtual property should be defined as theft.Virtual property is the object of larceny and can be taken away illegally.Therefore,it is reasonable to define the crime as theft,which is an expanded interpretation and conforms to the principle of legality.If it is classified as computer crime,it will not only solve the problem,but also lead to the imbalance of crime and punishment,which can not reflect the criminal intent of the perpetrator,and finally lead to deviation in the protection of legal interests.On the other hand,on the issue of sentencing,the sentencing of larceny can be divided into the amount type and the plot type.This paper calculates the amount according to the different situations of the subject,and combines the circumstances,so as to determine the statutory penalty.Finally,this paper provides suggestions for the protection of virtual property from the legislative and judicial aspects.