Virtual Worlds, Actual Issues: Digital Law and Cybersecurity in the Context of the Gaming Industry

Legal issues unified under the title of ‘digital law’ are widely discussed in a wide variety of very serious contexts. At the same time, the gaming industry has already gained a foothold in the market and in the hearts of users, demonstrating that games are no longer a subculture but an important part of the contemporary media environment. The game industry is one of the first (if not the first) to put new technological phenomena to the test – from the simple transferable digital objects that appeared in multiplayer games in the mid-90s, the artificial intelligence that has accompanied the gaming industry since its inception, and virtual and augmented reality technologies, to blockchain and NFT. In addition, as a media type, games are also a space where different narratives collide with soft power, which means games need to be included in discussions about the limits of free speech, credibility of information, and child protection. Incidentally, games themselves are in some fundamental ways similar to law – both phenomena are based on formally defined rules and their action in relation to other parties. The legal dimension of computer games is a kind of ‘playground’ for regulatory action, and examining these issues is necessary if we hope to develop a balanced approach to regulating the domestic gaming industry.
Most people come into contact with digital law in their daily lives, though the legal encounters, which concern many online and digital service-related activities, usually take place without the user’s knowledge. Cybercrime, privacy offences, and other events of a similar nature are becoming more and more frequent with the transition of services and opportunities to the digital environment. It has therefore become quite important that we educate and promote digital law, the digital transformation of legal work, and training for lawyers in information technology.
Central topics:
• Gaming as an object of legal relations: the result of intellectual activity, information, Internet services, and natural obligations.
• Transferable digital objects in historical and contemporary computer games: what useful lessons can be learned for regulation?
• The legal classification of transactions and other legally significant actions by users of multiplayer computer games and the limits on intervention of exercisable rights.
• Artificial intelligence in games: the relationship to a modern understanding of artificial intelligence in the technological and legal dimension.
• Information security in games in a narrow and broad sense. The permissibility and limits of ‘fictional’ and ‘non-fictional’ information dissemination restriction provisions, taking into account the interactive nature of the games.