Digital Objects of Civil Rights

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the problem of digitalization of objects of civil rights. In the context of the development of the digital economy, objects are consolidated and reflected in the digital environment. Article 128 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation sets forth the concept of digital rights. They are defined as property obligations and other rights, which does not allow them to be considered as independent new types of objects of civil rights. The category of digital rights introduced into the legislation does not cover all new objects that appear in the digital environment, which results in appearance of legal relations, in connection with which it is relevant to introduce the category of digital objects into the list of objects of civil rights as an independent type of objects of civil rights or as application of legal regimes of the named objects to new objects. For example, the categories of big data, big user data again make us think about the legal regime of information. Adhering to the understanding that information itself is not an independent type of objects of civil rights, we can conclude that information posted in the digital environment is capable of objectification as an intangible benefit (for example, personal data is an integral part of privacy, other rights enshrined in the legislation), while the owner of this information can transfer the right to use it to other persons. This right can be considered as a property (exclusive) right. The very provision of information can be objectified within the framework of services for its provision. Big data, if it does not contain personal information, can also be covered by a category of publicly available data that can be collected, analyzed, summarized by persons accessing this data legally (for example, from open sources on the Internet). In addition, the paper elucidates the problems of determining the legal regime of so-called virtual objects in the narrow sense (in-game objects, objects of virtual or augmented reality), artificial intelligence and robots created on the basis of artificial intelligence technology. In general, it is concluded that it is possible to extend to digital objects the legal regime of the named objects of civil rights with due regard to the peculiarities of their consolidation in the digital environment