Virtual China has dived into the legal aspects of virtual property. (The link to the article did not work properly, so you have to find it from the home page.) Between the lines interesting facts show up regarding the crime at the internet.
CNNIC reports that 61% of gamers have had virtual assets stolen and 77% feel that the current online atmosphere is unsafe for virtual assets.
That means the internet is a rather unsafe place to be, worse than anything in the real world. The number of reports on virtual theft is really astonishing.
The Internet Crime section of the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau says they get roughly ten reports PER DAY of stolen virtual assets, which are hard to know how to prosecute given the current status under law. Should they be classified as robberies? Fraud? A judge in Shanghai says that virtual asset cases often cause vigorous debate inside China's courts as to whether they should be classified as crimes or not.
Back in Shenzhen's Nanshan district, legal cases on record have clearly established that 1 Q coin equals 1 RMB, and that Q coins clearly have the attributes of property. Likewise for virtual equipment that can be bought and sold in a market. However, the status of QQ numbers is less clear. Can they be defined as property? Because the value of QQ numbers is hard to estimate, it then becomes hard to define QQ number theft as criminal theft.
More at Virtual China on the legal debate.
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