I was privileged to join several other legal scholars and AR/VR professionals at a roundtable discussion in Cleveland today. Organized by the First Amendment and the Arts Center at Case Western Reserve Law School and hosted by the EventWorks4D Hologram Studio, the event led off with a fascinating presentation from Philip Lelyveld, head of the Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality Initiative at the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center, on the state of innovation in the field. Following that was a 90-minute discussion featuring Phil, myself, professors from CWRU Law, and other legal practitioners and AR/VR innovators. (Catch some of the video here, under the hashtag #CleVR2017). The wide-ranging discussion covered a number of topics that have been addressed elsewhere on this blog and in my book, including issues of intellectual property, VR’s effects on behavior in light of neuroplasticity and muscle memory, First Amendment limitations on regulating AR (including our firm’s victory in Candy Lab v. Milwaukee), privacy, AR “keyword advertising” lawsuits, and more. It’s wonderful to see these issues finally getting the public vetting they deserve in light of AR/VR’s increasingly prominent role in mainstream society.
Many thanks to Patrick Kabat, Director, First Amendment and the Arts Project at CWRU Law, for including me in this discussion.
