Digital content in the real world: laws, rules and expectations
Augmented reality (AR) and blockchain are two branches, the process of lawmaking for which is just beginning. The regulation of the blockchain is provoked by crypto-currencies that otherwise threaten to crush state economies because of the unpredictable motives of people who manage stock market sentiment, as well as the growing bubble of black money that can be spent not only on socially useful things.
With the regulation of augmented reality, things are quite the same: this technology has developed for many years outside the consumer market, its massive adoption through the development of Apple and Google calls for an urgent need to develop specific regulatory solutions in the field of digital content that exists in the real world.
How to regulate the placement of digital advertising in augmented reality (AR)? What if the advertised product is subject to a local ban? Who will be responsible for navigational errors that lead to damage to third parties — content or platform owners? How to cope with the propaganda of drugs, if it literally cannot be seen by authorities?
While blockchain is the main subject of discussion in government commissions, the content of augmented reality falls out of sight. Such content has many unique properties that distinguish it from content on physical media, and from completely digital (for example, cloud content in virtual reality). Let’s formulate these properties and try to find solutions.
The possibility of placing AR content in any place of physical reality.
The availability of all available means of creating content, such as the Unity toolkit, the Asset Store 3D content market and the proprietary solutions of AR platforms, opens up tremendous opportunities for users to create virtual objects. In case of ARCONA, there will be a native editor and shop for these means. You’ll be able to publish AR content via the Internet as if you were uploading photos to your social network, it even looks almost the same. The fixing of AR content to certain space and time coordinates takes place automatically according to the given parameters.
Do you want to publish something at a particular point in the city, higher or lower, in any orientation, at the planned time or immediately, with the fixation for a static or dynamic object — all this takes a minimum of time, without requiring special preparation. You can learn this in a matter of hours, and the process is simplified. The overall availability of “drag and drop” publishing will gradually make the problem of regulation brighter, since the internal moderation process on AR platforms will become more complicated.
Possibility of remote positioning.
Citizens of one country, with their own rules and norms of conduct, can place AR content in another country, where these rules and norms could be different. In this case, there is not only a question of compliance with laws, but also the problem of correctly delivering international law to content owners, understanding the cultural characteristics of the audience. It is worth emphasizing that, at the moment, the vast majority of AR platforms do not foresee the signing of special agreements for the placement of AR content. Careless placement of unsuitable materials on the AR platform can undermine its credibility and lead to judicial proceedings.
Contextuality.
This property, in itself, is not a problem, but it can also lead to some negative scenarios. An AR content can be tied to a specific time, object or event. Therefore, if on platforms with free placement someone decides to create a complex scenario of the behavior of his program, he will do it, and it will be difficult to track this AR content.
An AR drug advertising, if it is written on the wall of a house, available to see by everyone, would cause indignation. But algorithms for the behavior of digital ads make possible to show ads only to those who, by any behavioral criteria, is the target audience. Technically, you can do such things today on the Internet, but the Internet is tightly regulated. An unregulated media environment, thinking of AR, can become a place of concentration of the black market, and contextuality could help it to hide.
Solutions
First of all, the solution of these problems cannot be broken down into separate components. Only complex measures are suitable and the main among them is the cooperation of ARCONA with experts from different countries, sociologists and legislative bodies. The global AR platform must take into account the cultural and legal field of each jurisdiction in which it operates.
At the same time, countries should also show flexibility in regulating augmented reality. In most of cases, this can be done within the framework of a minor adaptation of the current law regarding advertising and digital media. Sometimes the features of the new environment, such as contextuality, should be considered in the practice of creating an evidence base of breach of law. Operative and confidential interaction with government bodies will speed up the process of acting on specific cases.
ARCONA’s participation in local and international industry associations that accumulate the legal experience of many companies in different jurisdictions will be a good help in resolving legal issues.
However, we shouldn’t consider the technology of augmented reality as another tool for circumventing laws. The practice shows that in today’s digital world it is extremely difficult to remain incognito. ARCONA provides unique opportunities for people with ideas to place really useful and interesting projects on her lands. These are free territories in the most popular cities in the world, game engines that make content in the AR layer as captivating as in computer games, and new scenarios for interacting with virtual objects that were previously unavailable on any digital platform.
At ARCONA, we, from the very beginning, call for abiding the laws and cultural traditions of any country in which our users have decided to act. This is necessary for the successful development of each individual project and the reputation of the platform as a whole. The abiding of local norms and laws will be observed by representatives of the ecosystem working in the region.
Also, the ARCONA rules will have some standard restrictions related to the nature of the content (content associated with violence, scenes for adults, etc.). Nevertheless, until the international law is duly formed in terms of using the augmented reality, the ARCONA ecosystem will provide freedom of action, to some extent, reserving the right to submit any provocative projects for the discussion of the community and, taking into account the opinion of the majority, to evaluate their work. In case of controversial claims from the local authorities, we will provide help and legal assistance in protecting the rights of the ecosystem participants. The platform reserves 5% of all fees and incomes to resolve such issues.
If you doubt how to legitimate the content of your project may be, ask for legal support before the project is implemented!
