Copyright Laws in the Metaverse: Challenges and Emerging Issues

Over the past few years, the metaverse has gained a lot in popularity.

In fact, it is a thriving platform for creativity and innovation.

However, the metaverse also poses unique challenges from a copyright law perspective.?

Everything in the metaverse, from 3D images to music, is subject to copyright laws.

However, monitoring and enforcing copyright holders’ rights can get complex.?

In this article, I will explore some challenges that copyright holders may face in the metaverse.

I will also discuss a few emerging copyright issues.

Be sure to read this through!

Let’s get started!

Copyright Laws and the Metaverse

To start with, let’s look at how copyright laws can apply to the metaverse.

Application of Copyright Laws

Copyright laws are designed to protect original works and provide creators of original works exclusive rights over the same.

Copyright holders have the legal right to control the use and distribution of their work.

For instance, copyright holders have the right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display their work, among other things.

Furthermore, copyright laws apply to a wide range of creative works, such as music, images, videos, audio, text, and more.

Now, the metaverse as a platform, and everything within it, is fundamentally made of software code, a bunch of zeros and ones.

From this perspective alone, many creations under the "metaverse sun", such as images, skins, textures, sound effects, and music, can be original works subject to copyright laws.

Enforcement of Copyright Laws

Unfortunately, the application and enforcement of copyright laws in the metaverse can get quite complex.

In the metaverse, copyright laws must account for user-generated content, the ability of users to create virtual assets, share virtual content with others, use representations of copyrighted material coming from the physical world or the virtual world, and more.

This complexity gets amplified by the fact that you can have parallel virtual worlds, either interconnected or entirely segregated from one another.

From an enforcement perspective, this can become a nightmare for copyright holders.

Copyright holders may not have the ability to properly identify and monitor infringing content in the metaverse to protect their intellectual property rights.

As a result, the metaverse can be fertile ground for copyright infringement.

For example, a user can use another person’s copyrighted material in the metaverse (like avatar, texture, music, sound, design, etc) without permission for profit without detection.

Even if the infringing use is detected, it can be very difficult to identify and track the actual user behind the infringement.

And if the user (or users) is identified, it can be a complex and costly venture to prosecute the user (or all of the users) involved in the infringement.

Possible Copyright Enforcement Challenges in the Metaverse

Now, let’s look at a few challenges copyright holders may face when looking to enforce their copyrights.

Copyright Infringement Detection

Perhaps, the first challenge to overcome is to find a way to monitor the metaverse and detect copyright infringement cases.

In a traditional copyright infringement case, the copying and distribution of copyrighted material, with some effort of course, can be identified, tracked, and proven.

However, in the metaverse, it may not be that easy.

Copyright holders will have a much harder time identifying and tracking unauthorized use of their works in the metaverse.

Although we still do not have a unified definition of what the metaverse actually means, a metaverse is by definition a shared virtual space where virtual worlds are connected via the Internet.

Each virtual world is a peer-to-peer managed world that may or may not be connected to other virtual worlds (interoperability).

In this context, it can become very difficult to track these different virtual worlds and monitor user activity involving tool builders, software developers, world builders, artists, 3D modelers, game developers, users, and so many other classes of users and stakeholders.

Cross-Border Jurisdiction Issues

Another important challenge that we may face in the metaverse from a copyright perspective relates to cross-border jurisdiction issues.

Users from all over the world can participate in the metaverse virtual worlds.

Consequently, based on the current state of copyright laws, copyright holders will potentially need to navigate different legal systems to enforce their rights.

This can get complicated and expensive for copyright holders.

What copyright law will apply to a virtual world created by users from different parts of the world and hosted on servers in different jurisdictions?

What about each individual copyrighted work created within each of these legally ambiguous metaverses?

Lack of Control of User-Generated Content

A third important challenge that copyright holders can face in the metaverse is with respect to their ability to control user-generated content.

As mentioned before, a virtual world created in the metaverse is peer-to-peer managed where users are free to create and share their own content.

The metaverse is decentrally managed and governed by the rules adopted by its users.

Without proper controls in place, users may create (knowingly or not) content that is protected under copyright laws.

The more the metaverse gets traction, the content created in the metaverse will exponentially grow as well.

With more users creating content at rapid speeds, copyright holders will face a new type of challenge to monitor the use and distribution of their copyrighted material.

For the time being, a copyright holder will need to rely more on other metaverse users to report infringing content.

Otherwise, copyright holders will need to find a cost-effective method to monitor the metaverse.

Emerging Copyright Issues

As the metaverse continues to grow, new copyright issues are also emerging.?

Some emerging copyright issues include avatar rights, virtual property rights, and the exponential creation of user-generated content.?

Avatar rights refer to the legal rights of users to control and protect their virtual personas (or avatars).

In some virtual environments, users can create and customize their own avatars, and it is essential that they have control over the use and distribution of their avatars.?

What happens if different users create the same avatar (or something substantially similar) in the same or different virtual worlds?

Another emerging issue can be copyright issues with respect to virtual properties.

Virtual property rights refer to the ownership of virtual assets such as virtual lands, buildings, virtual objects, or other virtual assets.??

As virtual environments become more immersive, virtual property rights will become increasingly important from a legal standpoint, especially if the property has the potential of generating income.

Also, it is conceivable that the exponential creation of virtual assets will result in conflicting copyright holder rights.

We should also remember that we may face fair dealing issues (fair use in the United States) where users share copyrighted material in the context of social interactions or gameplay.

In what context can users use copyrighted material that falls under the fair dealing exception (or fair use)?

What type of “dealing” will be considered fair in the metaverse exempting the user from obtaining the proper authorizations from the copyright holder?

Takeaways

As the metaverse continues to grow, so do the challenges and emerging copyright issues that copyright holders face.?

There is no doubt in my mind that the metaverse will continue to grow, particularly in certain sectors where we have highly practical use cases (education, healthcare, and entertainment).

However, the more artists, software developers, investors, designers, 3D modelers, and other stakeholders get into the metaverse game, the more we are likely to see copyright challenges and potential disputes.

From my perspective, copyright laws will need to evolve to account for novel issues that the metaverse presents.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that the current copyright laws have endured the Internet and social media eras, so the foundation remains strong.

In the next few years, as we learn a lot more about the metaverse, we will be able to learn to adapt to it from a legal perspective as well.

If you are in the metaverse business or have a matter involving the metaverse, be sure to consult a qualified attorney.

Good luck!