Virtual Communities: Problems of Determining the Civil Legal Status

Abstract

In the context of digitalisation, people unite in a digital environment, forming virtual communities. At present, it is important to determine their legal status in order to specify the rights and obligations of participants in a virtual community, the procedure for the formation and management of such a community, as well as the possibility of making decisions of legal significance by meetings. The conducted research allows us to conclude that interaction within the virtual community is carried out on the basis of agreements that are not considered discretely, but form a network agreement: agreements of each user with the owner of the platform and agreements between users. At the same time, users, on the basis of an agreement on joint activities, can form such virtual communities that can be recognised as civil legal, capable, in cases provided for by the agreement, to make decisions of meetings that have legal consequences for all members of the community.