Lim, Hannah YeeFen --- "Property rights in virtual and augmented reality: Second Life versus Pokémon Go" [2018] ELECD 1389; in Barfield, Woodrow; Blitz, J. Marc (eds), "Research Handbook on the Law of Virtual and Augmented Reality" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 568

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Law of Virtual and Augmented Reality

Editor(s): Barfield, Woodrow; Blitz, J. Marc

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781786438584

Section: Chapter 17

Section Title: Property rights in virtual and augmented reality: Second Life versus Pokémon Go

Author(s): Lim, Hannah YeeFen

Number of pages: 36

Abstract/Description:

Video gaming has undoubtedly been revolutionized by the Internet. Single player games no longer seem to be as attractive as dynamic, networked games, such as virtual worlds. A number of nonlevel-based, social interaction three-dimensional virtual worlds have become hugely popular in recent decades. Two of the better known in the Western world have been Second Life There.com. Aside from the virtual-world games, in 2016 the augmented reality game Pokémon Go was launched worldwide and reached unprecedented popularity. Being an augmented reality game, which necessarily intrudes upon the real physical world, the game has raised a number of serious legal issues, certainly more than virtual-world games. This chapter focuses on the rights related to land arising from both the virtual world Second Life and the augmented reality game Pokémon Go. For Pokémon Go, it will analyze the various rights related to land from the perspective of a number of different parties, namely the game developer, the players, and the real-world land or property owners/occupiers.