Abstract

In the digital age, the civil law system needs to be transformed and upgraded. Although as a part of civil rights, data rights still have particularity acting as a comprehensive right, which should be analyzed by introducing the theory of rights bundles. Additionally, a distinction should be made between data rights and data products. Data is different from tangible property, as data is not exclusive, and more attention should be paid to data utilization. In the digital age, enactment and amendment of contract law should focus on license agreements. Moreover, related to citizens' vital interests usually, user agreements contain many unreasonable and unequal clauses. Therefore, standardized management should be conducted on standard terms with a transformation of emphasis from the autonomy of will to the justice of contract. Significant changes have also taken place in the object, exercise, and protection mode of personality rights in the digital era. Personality right has been independently incorporated into the Civil Code in China, which is a significant improvement of the protection mechanism of personality right under the background of digitalization. Patrimonial rights and non-patrimonial rights should be actively coordinated, with a transformation of focus from protecting patrimonial rights to the maintenance of digital personality rights. Tort law in the digital age is confronted with challenges, such as data infringement and massive micro-infringement. Shifting from focusing on the identification of ex-post fault to ex-ante risk prevention, the tort liability law should be actively used to protect data rights, and the diversification of compensation and relief functions should also be emphasized at the same time.

Keywords: digital age; data; patrimonial rights; contract; non-patrimonial rights; tort law

From: Journal of East China University of Political Science and Law 2023(2)

Translated by: Liu Yuwei