Duplicate digital goods: technological challenges in distinguishing between patrimonial and existential legal situations

Abstract

Based on Pietro Perlingieri's theoretical model of the constitutionalization of civil law, the article is dedicated to analyzing the normative treatment of new digital goods based on the functional profile of legal situations, which distinguishes patrimonial situations from existential ones, instrumentalizing the first to the second. However, based on the deductive method and theoretical review, the article aims to identify the problem arising from goods with a dual nature, in which elements of heritage and existentialism are combined, such as social media profiles and YouTube channels that promote products and brands in a way associated with the influencer's personal lifestyle; relationship sites with premium modalities, in which payment takes place to facilitate access to another person's data and, thus, promote the search and the intended meeting; and also social games, in which participants interact with each other, linked to social networks and based on data available there, to build an identity in cyberspace. It was found that such assets end up transferring to the interpreter the responsibility for recognizing in law both the role of ensuring their disposition under the existential autonomy of their holder, but also, creating barriers against the commodification of the human person.