Careers

Experiences

Industries

Offices

Our Firm

Pages

Our People

Updates

Practices

Warner Norcross + Judd LLP is a corporate law firm with over 230 attorneys serving clients in nine offices throughout Michigan. Among the largest law firms in Michigan, Warner works in virtually all areas of business law.

Michigan Law Firm - Warner Norcross + Judd LLP

News is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/teenager-arrested-real-strike-app-virtual-shooting-spree-2013-9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">spreading</a> that a student at &nbsp;<a href="http://schools.tpsd.org/hlb/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">H. L. Bourgeois&nbsp;High School</a> in Gray, Louisiana&nbsp;was arrested last week after posting a YouTube video of himself using the AR app <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/real-strike-original-3d-augmented/id507884100?mt=8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Real Strike</a> to simulate a machine gun attack on his classmates. &nbsp;As most AR technology does, Real Strike--which bills itself as<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvqLrziTGNc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> the "First-Ever Augmented-Reality Gun App"</a>--superimposes digital data on top of the physical world. &nbsp;And, as is true of most existing mobile games that incorporate some form of AR, Real Strike isn't terribly sophisticated. &nbsp;It takes the foreground imagery of your standard first-person shooter video game and superimposes it on the view of your phone's video camera, to create the illusion that you're shooting whatever's in front of you--in this case, other students.

contentpilot/introduction

I've <a href="http://www.wassom.com/staying-out-of-trouble-while-playing-augmented-reality-games.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chronicled</a> other incidents of AR gamers being arrested or questioned because police mistook their interaction with digital objects--which could easily look odd to those who can't see the objects--for suspicious and potentially criminal behavior. &nbsp;As tempting as it may be to lump this incident together with those as evidence of a backlash against AR, however, that's not what's going on here.

core/paragraph

Rather, the important part of this story is that the student posted the video of himself playing the game on YouTube. &nbsp;Admittedly, the arresting sheriff made the comment that Real Strike is "just not a very good game to be playing at this time." &nbsp;That's a troubling comment. &nbsp;It's hard to imagine it being appropriate to punish someone--even a student--simply for <em>using</em> this app. &nbsp;Sure, if someone was watching the phone screen over his shoulder as he played, the view might be a bit off-putting. &nbsp;But it's hardly a threat.

Once the video is captured and distributed online, however, the AR aspect becomes irrelevant. &nbsp;So does the fact that it was all a game; the student could have easily made a similar video with iMovie or some other video software. &nbsp;Now it's a simply as video of actual students being mowed down by a machine gun, without any other context in which to understand the video. &nbsp;And in that sense, this incident is indistinguishable from <a href="http://www.wassom.com/wosml/wosml-35a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">several others</a> in which students played out violent fantasies against their schoolmates or teachers online. &nbsp;Those students were also severely punished, because school violence is far too real these days to simply ignore such ominous messages. &nbsp;(I've chronicled these and other bases for disciplining students over social media content in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Social-Media-School-Discipline-ebook/dp/B00EX6YUD0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1378075919&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=social+media+school+discipline" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">my new e-book</a>.)

That's why the local sheriff's office <a href="http://wgno.com/2013/09/12/a-student-accused-of-using-a-mobile-app/#axzz2eqjLmHTM" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arrested</a> the student "for terrorizing and interference of the operation of a school." His parents reportedly denied that their son had access to any real weapons. &nbsp;That's probably true, but it's hard to see how that makes a difference to how authorities should interpret the YouTube video. &nbsp;As one <a href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5939218281959875716&amp;q=wynar&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=2,5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">court</a> recently said in an opinion upholding a school's severe punishment of a student who sent his classmates ominous instant messages that referenced guns and past school shootings, "we can only imagine what&nbsp;would have happened if the school officials, after&nbsp;learning of [the post], did nothing about it and&nbsp;[the student] did in fact come to school with a gun."

One thing, though, is for sure--with the burgeoning explosion of wearable video technology and AR overlay capabilities, we're going to be seeing a lot more incidents like this in the very near future, from students and others throughout society. &nbsp;We need to think more deeply about where the lines of propriety and legality are in these situations.

<em>HT to <a href="https://twitter.com/tacotacotuesday" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Taylor McDonald</a> for alerting me to this story.</em>

core/heading

Augmented Legality

Emerging Media and Technologies

Partner

Brian D. Wassom

Information Technology Transactions

Another Augmented Reality Gamer Arrested–But With Good Reason?

Warner Norcross + Judd LLP is responsible for the contents of our advertising and this website. Please read our full <a href="/privacy-policy/" aria-label="see privacy policy">privacy policy</a> available on our website. If you have any questions or comments about our website or our Privacy Policy please contact us at <a href="mailto:info@wnj.com">info@wnj.com</a> or 616.752.2000. 

Another Augmented Reality Gamer Arrested–But With Good Reason?

professionals