How to protect virtual property that can be seen but not touched?

Broadly speaking, virtual property can be roughly divided into four categories, including:

(1) Virtual objects, also known as virtual tangible property, are simulations of tangible objects in the real world, such as characters, equipment, and pets in online games;

(2) Virtual currencies, as equivalents in the online world, to a certain extent, serve as a bridge between the real world and the virtual world. They are a type of special virtual objects, such as Tencent's Q coins and Q points, Shanda's points, Baidu's Baidu coins, etc. Special virtual currencies such as Bitcoin require a certain amount of resources, property, and energy to obtain, and have value in the sense of exchange, and are also virtual property;

(3) Identity authentication information, i.e., the account registered by the user with the network service provider, which is the identity carrier for enjoying network information services, such as instant messaging accounts represented by QQ and WeChat, social network accounts represented by Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, bank and third-party payment accounts, email accounts, online stores, etc.;

(4) Virtual space, such as personal homepage space, domain names, web pages, etc. Virtual property must be valuable as a prerequisite for divorce division. Therefore, in ordinary divorce lawsuits, the virtual property in dispute between the parties is concentrated on online stores, WeChat accounts, virtual currencies, and web pages with commercial value. The essence of the dispute lies in the division of property rights.

The Civil Code changes the enumerative provisions on the scope of inheritance in the Inheritance Law, and provides legislative guidance and judicial adjudication space for including virtual property in the scope of inheritance through general provisions.

Article 1062 of the Civil Code: The following property acquired by a husband and wife during their marriage shall be regarded as their common property and shall belong to them jointly:

(1) wages, bonuses, and remuneration for labor services;

(2) income from production, operation and investment;

(3) income from intellectual property rights;

(4) property inherited or donated, except as provided for in paragraph 3 of Article 1063 of this Law;

(5) Other property that should be jointly owned.

Husband and wife have equal rights to deal with common property.

Explaining the law more clearly through cases In January 2016, Zhao and Yin, Yuan, and Zhang reached an agreement on jointly setting up the WeChat public account "A" through a WeChat group chat. Subsequently, Zhao registered the WeChat public account "A" in his personal name and opened a bank account as a public account. During the operation of the public account, columns were set up in the names of Zhao, Yin, Yuan, and Zhang, and the content was presented in the form of articles published by the four people separately or jointly. As of July 2017, the WeChat public account had accumulated more than 3 million yuan in revenue. Later, Zhao had a disagreement with the other three people. Zhao changed the password of the public account and withheld the income of the public account. The plaintiffs Yin, Yuan, and Zhang sued the court, requesting the division of the public account and the income during the joint operation. How to determine the value of this public account?

WeChat public accounts can be classified as online virtual property. At present, there are relatively mature recommended standards for the value of online virtual property in the field of online games, such as determination by network service operators, calculation of economic costs invested by players, market transaction prices, and evaluation by entrusted appraisal agencies. In terms of the value determination standards for online virtual property such as new media, we can refer to the determination methods of online games, but we need to improve them in combination with the characteristics of self-media platforms themselves.