WEBSITE: FROM AN ELECTRONIC FOLDER TO A COMPONENT OF THE METAVERSE — EVOLUTION OR INVOLUTION?

Abstract

Website is often mistakenly referred to intellectual property, whereas in fact the object of intellectual property rights may be not the site itself, but its components — the creative content layout of the site (the result of composition), the appearance of the site and design of the site interface (design works or industrial design). At the same time the understanding of the site as a specially structured information in the form of a collection of interconnected web pages and electronic files, united by a single domain name, allows us to relate it to the basic elements of the Internet, considering it through the prism of information law. In this context, one cannot ignore the transformation of a website from an independent information resource into one of the components of a complex Internet resource — the information system. In turn, the widespread use of information systems suggests a weakening of the position of the site, which is increasingly turning from an autonomous Internet resource into a component of the information system. The forthcoming introduction of the Metaverse is likely to contribute even more to the diminution of the significance of the website as a basic element of the world wide web.

This article assessed the current “status” of the website as an element of the Internet in order to address the need to develop a legal regime for the website as a complex object of intellectual property. On the basis of the analysis we have formulated additional arguments in support of our earlier conclusion that there is no need to develop the said legal regulation.