concerning German and American lawThe use of Bitcoins is increasing rapidly. Bitcoins are utilized in e-commerce to purchase both legal and illegal goods, they are transferred and traded and companies have invested their capital in the new digital currency. While the technical aspects of the system are well established, the legal framework remains unclear. Legislators all over the world are just starting to discover this new virtual phenomenon. This article illustrates selected legal challenges arising in different fields of law (public, criminal, and civil law). Particular attention is paid to the German situation while the US-American context is also considered
However, the theft of virtual goods is growing and this development is profoundly challenging traditional criminal law.
id: 6d1f9c50305aaecfc010b844c57ec710 - page: 7
In the US, state law defines theft. For instance, Article 155 New York Penal Law, punishes the stealing of property. As already seen in the context of money laundering the status of virtual goods as property has been discussed but not answered yet. This problem exists under various legal systems. In the Netherlands, usually very progressive in the field of internet law, the Supreme Court classified virtual goods as property and sentenced a teenager for stealing virtual money and virtual goods in the online fantasy role playing game Runescape . Some single US courts have the tendency to appreciate virtual property as well [32, 33], nonetheless the protection against theft of Bitcoins is still unclear.
id: 0cffd82104a368b700cbbb4c956f2be7 - page: 7
To give an interim result, criminal law provisions in the US and Germany can only apply to Bitcoins, if their scope is extended. One main problem in this regard seems to be the virtual nature of Bitcoins. If provisions, such as the German theft provision, do not allow for such extensions, other provisions have to be designed to cover these cases. 4 Civil Law Similar to criminal law, classifying Bitcoins under German civil law is also difficult due to their virtual nature. The German civil law system distinguishes special categories of objects, which can be covered by rights, namely physical objects, claims and a strictly limited number of other immaterial goods (IP rights). However, Bitcoins are neither physical objects nor are they claims because there is no issuer and a Bitcoins value is not covered by any guarantees.
id: e56267c0a236181c6ed0f1206e89ee2c - page: 7
The only possible approach to classify Bitcoins under the currently existing list of IP rights is the German Copyright Act. This act protects works which represent a personal the German Copyright Act (Urheberrechtsgesetz)), and contains special rules for the protection of software ( 69c of the German Copyright Act). But Bitcoins are neither a personal intellectual creation (but the result of a software process) nor software (just the Bitcoin protocol is software). German civil law does not include any rules for the property of virtual intellectual creation ( 2
id: fc120b67978ceeee8386c3e5f1a09d69 - page: 7