数据的法律属性及其民法定位

The Legal Properties of Data and the Position of Data in Civil Law

计算机数据是不是财产以及其与民法客体的关系问题在民法理论上缺乏基础性研究,既有的网络民事纠纷裁判及理论研究倾向于单独将数据进行客体化和财产化的处理。数据没有特定性、独立性,亦不属于无形物,不能归入表彰民事权利的客体;数据无独立经济价值,其交易性受制于信息的内容,且其价值实现依赖于数据安全和自我控制保护,因此也不宜将其独立视作财产。基于数据的非客体性,大数据交易的合同性质宜界定为数据服务合同;基于主体不确定、外部性问题和垄断性的缺乏,数据权利化也难以实现。数据具有工具中立性的本质特征,法律能够对其实现的规制功能有限。网络民事纠纷可以区分为工具性和虚拟性两类,分别适用一般侵权救济和违反保护他人法律的侵权救济。

There is little fundamental research in civil law theory on the question of whether'computer data'is property and how it relates to the objects of civil law.Existing judgments on online civil disputes and current theoretical research tend to process data only as objects and properties.Data does not have specificity or independence;it is not intangible,nor can it be classified as an object with civil rights content;it has no independent economic value,and trading in data is constrained by its information content.Moreover,the realization of its value depends for protection on data security and self-control,so it cannot easily to be regarded as property.Since data is not an object,contracts for big data transactions can readily be defined as data service contracts,but given the uncertainty of the entity in question,the problem of externalities and the lack of a monopoly,it is not easy to realize data rights.Data has the essential character of instrumental neutrality,and there are limits to the law's imposition on it of regulatory functions.Online civil disputes can be divided into the instrumental and the virtual,used respectively as remedy of general torts and as tort remedy for violation of laws protecting others.