This past July in Rhodes, a suburb of Sydney, hundreds of people wandered like “zombies” in search of animated creatures through the lens of their smartphones. The popular Pokémon Go game places digital “characters” into real places, such as private homes, shops, parks and museums and has fueled the debate over legal boundaries of private property and what constitutes trespassing.
“A lot of people are convinced that because they own their property, they ought to be able to control the virtual space,” said Brian Wassom, a lawyer at Michigan’s Warner Norcross & Judd LLP with expertise in augmented reality.