Criminal Law Protection Paths for Data Property Rights: A Perspective on Data Theft

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-593-5_81How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Data Property Rights; Digital Economy; Criminal Law Protection

Abstract

With the rapid development of the digital economy, data has evolved into a key production factor with significant economic value. However, the rise of data theft—characterized by unauthorized access, copying, and transfer—poses substantial challenges to existing criminal law frameworks. Traditional doctrines, primarily designed to protect tangible property or information security, struggle to adequately address infringements upon data-related economic interests. This paper argues that data should be recognized as a form of property interest within criminal law. Despite its intangible and replicable nature, data possesses controllability, transferability, and value-generating capacity, which justify its inclusion as a protected legal interest. On this basis, the paper examines the doctrinal obstacles in regulating data theft, including the incompatibility with traditional theft structures, the limitations of information-related offenses, and the difficulties in loss assessment. To overcome these challenges, this study proposes a systematic protection approach: clarifying the legal status of data property interests, reconstructing the criteria for identifying data theft based on the infringement of control, optimizing the offense structure, and improving methods for evaluating economic loss. These measures aim to establish a coherent criminal law framework capable of effectively addressing data theft in the digital age.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Feilin Chen
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/30
TI  - Criminal Law Protection Paths for Data Property Rights: A Perspective on Data Theft
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Humanities, Wisdom Education and Service Management (HWESM 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 736
EP  - 744
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-593-5_81
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-593-5_81
ID  - Chen2026
ER  -