Digital rights to virtual assets after death have become a concern for many Chinese people living increasingly digital lives, and the concept of virtual inheritance still hangs in legal limbo.

A woman surnamed Wang in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, approached Tencent, provider of the country's most popular instant message platform QQ, to claim access to her recently deceased husband's QQ account but was refused, Huashang Morning Post reported on Wednesday.

Citing its Terms of Service, Tencent explained that QQ accounts could not be inherited, the paper said.

That story triggered heated debate among Chinese netizens on several major social networking sites, with the majority criticizing Tencent for its "inhumane" treatment of deceased users and their families.

Tencent's official microblog responded shortly after midnight Thursday, expressing condolences and promising to help Wang after verifying her identity with local authorities.

The clarification attributed the delay in handling Wang's application to strict policies in protecting the privacy of users.

Still, Chinese netizens were not satisfied. Discussions on the protection of virtual assets continued and expanded over the weekend.

Many were shocked to find that, under Tencent's Terms of Service, they do not own their QQ accounts, but are only granted a limited right to use them.

The right to use an account belongs solely to the original applicant, and this right shall not be gifted, loaned, rented, transferred or sold, according to Tencent's Terms of Service.

"People are too dependent on the Internet," wrote Zhenzhen, using Tencent's microblog service. "Every password should be backed up with a hard copy."

Many bloggers agreed with Zhenzhen and said they would include their QQ passwords in their wills.

Meanwhile, others argued that social media companies shouldn't grant permission for anyone to access a deceased user's account without prior permission from the deceased.

"Protecting their privacy is also a form of paying due respect to the deceased," wrote microblogger Lili.

China's current laws are vague on the protection of virtual property, and fail to even define virtual property assets.

In 2003, a group of 19 lawyers from southeast China's Sichuan Province submitted a proposal to the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, to push for virtual asset legislation after local police refused to file an online game player's report that his account and gaming achievement had been stolen.

The first official rule on the use of virtual currency in online games, however, was issued in June 2009. A virtual currency can only be traded for virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods or services from other providers, according to the rule.

China's population of Internet users has risen rapidly over the past decade and exceeded 500 million users by the end of last month, marking a popularization rate close to 40 percent.

Recently, a huge potential market for digital heritage management services has emerged, spurring business development in the sector.

Heaven Letter, a Tianjin-based company set up last year, can preserve all of its customers' digital content, including passwords for e-mail accounts, blogs and other social networking services.

Following the death of a customer, the company will send the customer's digital information to designated recipients.

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