Embarking on an innovative journey, Apple at the beginning of June revealed that they would be launching a mixed-reality headset in 2024, the Apple Vision Pro. The market already has virtual reality headsets from Meta and Sony PlayStation but there is a growing use of virtual reality and augmented reality, and with Apple’s entry into this niche market, its adoption is only set to increase. However, there are legal and policy challenges arising from this growing niche industry.

Legal issues arising from Virtual Reality

1.   IP rights – The use of intellectual property in the virtual world could be one the major causes of concern for owners of IP rights. For instance, in a popular VR game called “Second Life’, players can visit a number of public places and use merchandise which could violate the trademarks and copyrights of various brands existing in the real world. VR systems allow users to virtually import photographs, music, brand names and otherwise IP-protected material into their virtual experiences without obtaining necessary permissions from the owner of such intellectual property. Furthermore, there are several jurisdictional problems while enforcing claims against such VR users, since VR users log in from several countries whose IP laws may differ widely from one to another.
2.   Virtual Crimes – The psychological effects of immersion in virtual reality experiences can lead to ethical challenges and criminal issues in assessing virtual crimes. Research indicates that VR can lead to particular kinds of emotions and result in sufferings since VR experiences may seem real to users even though they are being done in a virtual environment. Such crimes include virtual groping, cyber assault, stealing of virtual property, illegal betting with virtual money, identity theft, strobe lighting and mere indecent exposure such as nudity, orgy etc.
3.   Privacy – The issue of privacy is one of deep importance and possesses immense weight in combating virtual privacy violations. Currently, there exist data protection norms in approximately all Asian countries which are equally applicable to VR/AR hardware, software and content providers so as to ensure they remain compliant with these laws. However, many VR gaming platforms store and process substantial amounts of personal data of their users in furtherance of their advertising and business models. For instance, the amount of reaction time by the user can be used as health data and sold to interested entities. Users may also share details pertaining to their location, age, race, preferences etc. which form their digital footprint and can be used in their identification in real life. Unfortunately, privacy regulations today are not mature enough to deal with such issues.

Possible solutions

1.   Defining Liabilities IP – holders must state specifically in the contract arrangement with VR content creators the ownership and liability arising in case of the breach/unfair use of intellectual property rights/other rights.
2.   Self-Regulation – this provides scope for VR content providers to frame industry-friendly policies and participate actively in the lawmaking process in the VR sector. Hence, they must take proactive steps in formulating legally and ethically sound strategies in dealing with infringement claims.

3.   Fair use standard– The development of VR in coming years will likely see more cases of violation of the “fair use standard’. Hence, corporations and governments must come. together to formulate industry-specific standards for fair use doctrine.