The criminal law protection of virtual property
Tao Jin, Jing-jing Yao · Legal Science in China and Russia · 2024
Virtual property in the sense of criminal law has the dispute between data attribute and property attribute, which leads to the differences in the criminal law protection path of virtual property. Virtual property has dual attributes of data and property, data attribute is its physical attribute, property attribute its essential attribute. According to the essential attribute of virtual property, virtual property should be protected as property, and the property protection path should be adopted. Virtual property is divided into physical virtual property, account virtual property and currency virtual property. Virtual property with management possibility, transfer possibility, relative non-replicability and property value should be protected as property. Virtual property should be protected by classification, and the property protection path should be adopted for physical virtual property and currency virtual property with property value. The account type virtual property and the physical virtual property without property value should be protected as data.