Digital image (digital copy of a person) in the system of objects of civil laws: experience of model legislation

Abstract

The article analyses the provisions of the Model Law for the CIS member states «On Digital Rights» relating to the digital image (digital copy of a person), the rights to which are considered as personal non-property rights. In order to clarify the place of the digital image in the system of personal non-property rights, its distinctive features are characterized in comparison with the citizen’s right to an image. The content of the subjective right to a digital image is characterized. The normative basis of the study was formed by the model legislation for the CIS member states and the national legislation of the member states (in particular, the law of Belarus and Russia). Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that the right to a digital image (digital copy of a person) can be considered as one of the manifestations of the citizen’s right to an image. The model law «On Digital Rights» allows to highlight the features that distinguish a digital image (digital copy of a person) from other forms of protected images (for example, works of fine art, photo and video recordings, etc.), but does not give grounds to consider it outside the existing mechanisms for ensuring the citizen’s right to an image. The author of the article concludes that the content of the right to a digital image (digital copy of a person) does not have any serious differences from the content of the citizen’s right to an image. This is manifested in the similarity in the subject composition, the order of use of the digital image and the image of a citizen, both during his life and after his death, the regulation of the emergence of these objects, the establishment of restrictions on the right of a citizen to a digital image and his own image, as well as the consequences of violation of these rights.