The Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament recently released a study addressing commercial, industrial, and military utilization of the Metaverse, suggesting a dire need for legislation that upholds fundamental legal principles and ensures comprehensive oversight.
In the study, the Metaverse is identified as a digitally rendered multidimensional space, either provided by public or private entities, which can serve as an individual platform or network, mimicking reality, inventing a new digital world, or a combination of both. Whether it’s a solitary, interoperable universe or a multitude of enclosed metaverses, its use cases span commerce, industry, military, and public services, based on the users’ auditory, visual, and occasionally, tactile perception of the simulation.
The Metaverse is, therefore, an evolution of the Internet (reference is made to Web 3.0), seen to increasingly involve users in the creation of their virtual worlds.
Legal implications become intriguing when the study cites “ethical AI principles” as a guide for the Metaverse, given that certain AI technologies allow for widespread automation of information processing, paving the way for mass surveillance and other illegal intrusions. These developments raise significant concerns over fundamental rights, particularly privacy and data protection. The study also scrutinizes generative foundation models, which (according to the latest version of AI Act proposal) must comply with additional transparency requirements such as content generation disclosure, design to prevent illegal content, and public availability of a detailed summary of protected training data usage.
To this end, the study underscores potential issues concerning the digitization of know-how, business methods, knowledge, verbal and written input, expressions, movements, emotions, habits, etc. These forms of data, not currently covered by personal data protection or intellectual property laws, risk unauthorized reproduction for profit in the Metaverse through AI.
According to the report, the “Metaverse is an IPR intense technology. The technology itself is subject to extensive patents. Everything in metaverse is either copied from physical original, which is often covered by intellectual property or data protection, or created and thus benefiting from such protection”.
IP challenges (just to name a few) arise from the creation of new types of assets like digital assets and digital collectibles backed by Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), evolution of various licensing models, emergence of new patent areas due to the ability to create purely digital products or replicate physical and digital products in the Metaverse, and applicability of copyright laws to the software used to construct the Metaverse and its virtual reality interface.
The study concludes by stressing the intricacies of cross-border intellectual property law relations and potential litigations within the Metaverse. Issues may arise related to identifying competent courts, varying procedural and substantive laws among different judicial systems of the Member States, and possibly the U.S. legal system, where major Metaverse services are based. This multi-jurisdictional landscape adds additional complexity to enforcement rules.
In summary, the study underscores the necessity of robust legislation and oversight for the burgeoning Metaverse, emphasizing a diverse range of legal and ethical implications, particularly in the sphere of IP and privacy rights. It further underlines the need for a broader understanding and application of legal principles within this new digital landscape.
Header image created with Microsoft Bing. Prompt: “a digitally rendered multidimensional space, either provided by public or private entities, which can serve as an individual platform or network, mimicking reality, inventing a new digital world, or a combination of both”.
