The Emergence of Digital Image Value Property Rights Created by Interactivity between Users and Items in Online Game

Digital item transaction is one of broadband-networked society outcomes. Digital item refers to digital image belongs to Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Online Games (MMRPOG). Digital item transaction has been explosively increased for the past two years especially in Korea and similar transaction increase has been noted in the U.S and other highly networked countries. Whether or not to recognize the value of digital image as property rights has been tabled as a controversial issue in places where digital item transaction is taking place. Without clear social consensus process, courts in Asia already clarified through the verdicts that digital item or digital image should be treated as property but ownership of digital item debate still continues. This paper attempts to explain how property rights of digital image has been shaped in the digital world and to verify our hypotheses that the value of digital image is being created by interactions between users and digital image and that the value of digital image is not inherent to the digital image. Interactions among game users in the cyber world have invented new value in the cyber space. The value of digital image is being newly designed through communication process and such an interactive process will result in users’ different “perception of property rights”. Those who interact with digital image more often express stronger perception of their own property rights of digital image. This paper summarizes online survey result conducted among 4,056 Lineage game users in Korea. This research indicated game users have their own perception of digital image or digital item established. The level of interactivity measured by time, modification, and criticality factors is meaningful variable that can predict the level of users’ “perception of property rights”. When the value and the property rights of digital image are reconstructed from real world’s legal perspective in the future, the concept of value recreation and the concept of value reconstruction through human communication should be taken into account.