Do you love Virtual Reality? Do you favor Augmented reality? Or do you like some other flavor, like Mixed Reality, better than anything else? No matter what type floats your boat, it shows that you like new technology and are most likely betting on some big market numbers for the coming years.
Relax! I am not going into my usual ‘no way’ discussion about unrealistic market forecasts (here we go), no I want to talk about the real life consequences of all these reality versions we are seeing developing in front of our eyes (literally).
As you know, virtual reality is a media technology that takes the cinema concept to new heights. It is best compared to a dome projection system that we normally know from an astronomy dome, where the user is the only viewer sitting directly on the projector. In fairness to the complex 360º projection system, such a field of view would be awesome for any headset. In VR, you wear a headset that blocks out completely the real world around you. As a matter of fact you are transported to some other place that may, or may not, exist in real life. So let me make the point that this place can be anywhere. If the place is off limits for people (for security or any other reasons) and you are there in virtual reality, are you breaking the law?
You think that this is stupid question? Of course, you say. I would hope you are right, but the whole idea is much less far fetched as you make think. For example, Singularity Hub discussed in their article “You Can Ban a Person, But What About Their Hologram?” that a person having outstanding warrants for their arrest (a rapper from Chicago) wanted to appear in a concert via hologram. It is not clear if the police wanted to arrest the hologram, but at least they stopped the projection immediately.
This was not the first time some form of projection was used to overcome certain bans. In Spain, a group of protesters marched in a quiet street and projected their protest in front of a government building, where protest was unlawful.
Similar concerns exist for augmented reality technology. Just think of the ban of Pokemon Go in China and the restriction of the game in other parts of the world. For example, in the USA, some states require any company developing similar games to get permission from municipalities before using public spaces within their games.
On a similar note, what is with entertainment content that features dead artists? Virtual or augmented reality content featuring deceased artists may be an interesting way to make money in this space. What if you could see the Beatles perform together on your latest headset? Would that be lawful or would this violate copyright and other laws? (It will also depend on where you get your copy of the content of course)
As it turns out this is not clear by any means. As Stephen Anson discussed in his 2014 article “Hologram Images and the Entertainment Industry: New Legal Territory?” this is a question of copyright laws and the right to publicity (a right protecting the artists look, voice, mannerism, etc). As he concludes: “Celebrities, public figures, and estate planners should be mindful of these new technologies, establish domicile in states with robust rights of publicity, and draft wills accordingly to ensure greatest posthumous protection.”
While this conclusion was based on the ‘holographic’ appearance of some artists, we should keep in mind that in 2014 AR and VR were mostly discussion points for technologists and not a reality for actual audiences. I would expect that this is now changing and these legal questions apply to the new reality technologies as well.
Now I want you to take a leap of faith with me. Let us assume that the following image of the lovely lady is a famous person we all know. For copyright reasons I can’t use a real famous person, but we can at least pretend.
Source: Turbo Squid
With me so far? So let’s take this one step further. This person appears in augmented reality content in front of you and sings a copyrighted song. Who is breaking the law now? The AR image or you watching it?
You think that this is really far fetched? How about this story “Political reporter says a malicious tweet sent to him caused an epileptic seizure” appearing in The Guardian? My first response was that has to be fake news (don’t forget I live in the USA). As it turns out this news was published by basically every serious news outlet there is, followed by the announcement on a TV channel that the FBI actually arrested a man in Maryland for this crime. No, I did not drive to Maryland to verify this account. However, I am certain enough of this incident that I believe that such a construct is much closer to reality than we think.
So, what if the lovely lady that appears on your AR headset turns out to be much more of a nutcase than a musical artist? Let’s say she pulls out a gun and aims at you, what are you going to do. Remember that this is all just happening in a light field in front of your eyes, but will your physical reflexes also know this? Or are you jumping to the side just in front of the car coming down the road? I think you get my drift here.
If you think this all just happening in my imagination, I would say that you haven’t played any video games lately.
In addition I just want to make sure that this kind of assignation attempt comes actually pretty cheap, as you can buy the legal rights to the lovely lady above for a mere $399. And no, I did not read the fine print to find out if this price includes a ‘license to kil’l.
Source: Turbo Squid
Obviously this article publishes a little ahead of April’s fool day and I can assure you that the examples I used here are all real and all this is happening, as we are developing A, V, M-R technologies that are even more immersive and realistic. Maybe that is actually not the best idea. (NH)
