Compensation for moral damage as a way to protect violated personal non-property rights and intangible benefits in the internet environment

The purpose of this article is to study the theoretical and legal aspects of compensation for moral damage as a mechanism for the prevention of offenses in the Internet environment. To achieve this goal, tasks such as the analysis of the content of the concept of «moral harm», the study of criteria for the systematization of personal non-property rights are set. The article uses modern methods of scientific cognition such as general scientific and private scientific research methods, which together made it possible to characterize compensation for moral damage as a mechanism for preventing offenses in the Internet environment.

The results of the study include the formulation of scientific and practical proposals to improve the legal regulation of compensation for moral damage in the Internet environment in Russia, taking into account the established legal practice in foreign countries. The legal essence of moral damage as an evaluative concept and legal category is revealed in the fact that when determining the amount of the latter, judicial discretion is taken into account to the extent that it is allowed by Russian law, the model of civil procedure, the existing judicial system and established practice in courts. The article also touches upon the theoretical dilemma regarding the identification of a person in the digital space through the coverage of issues of the correctness of the use of personal data in the Internet environment. As a result, it is proposed to legislatively define the concept of «personal data» as «any information related to an identified individual or an individual who can be identified.» The analysis of the problem of tracking and recording the facts of offenses in the Internet environment, the problem of determining the amount and payment of compensation for moral damage caused in the Internet space is consistently given.

The study is accompanied by conclusions arising from the analysis of the legislative regulation of compensation for moral damage caused on the Internet. As a result, the authors come to the conclusion that compensation for moral damage has certain features of manifestation on the Internet. Cases in this category have certain difficulties (the uncertainty of the defendant, the large volume of the information dissemination site, the defendant's ability to delete information, high costs for ensuring pre-trial fixation of evidence), which contributes to an increase in the marginal environment of the Internet environment. A proposal has been formulated on the need to catalog the amounts for causing moral suffering and provide the perpetrator with a wide margin of discretion, taking into account new approaches to determining the amount of compensation for moral harm on the Internet.

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