Virtual mine

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The head of the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Maksut Shadayev, stated that video game development has become one of the most affected industries in Russia in recent times, and proposed launching a program to support the development of Russian online games.

At the same time, the gaming industry is one of the most rapidly developing in the world and shows significant economic growth. In 2021, the volume of the domestic video game market grew by 9% to 177.4 billion rubles, and the number of gamers reached 88 million people.

Despite the state's attention, this industry content writing service is actually outside the legal field, Hippolyte Dumoulin, founder of the propaganda & communications agency HD ARTEL, noted in an interview with RSpectr. In his opinion,

It is necessary to introduce a number of legislative initiatives concerning the gaming industry and determining the legal status of video games, and to determine the agency that has the right to oversee these products




As a rule, large international online gaming platforms take local legislation into account, according to a study by the Scientific and Technical Center of the Main Radio Frequency Center (NTC GRChTs). However, the text of the user agreement may directly indicate that if a certain area of ​​legal relations is not regulated, the rules of the platform may be applied without taking into account the principles of state law. Therefore, the center's experts predict,

Most controversial situations in the gaming industry will be resolved in practice in the courts or law enforcement agencies

At the same time, in the domestic legal regulation of virtual property in the case of multiplayer games, the status quo applies between the platform and the user.

“Changing this approach will create additional difficulties for domestic publishers, who enjoy a certain legal immunity from gamers’ demands in the part that concerns the content of the gameplay,” the study notes.

In order to establish the fact of theft of in-game property or misleading users, gaming and streaming platforms must be qualified as organizers of information dissemination on the Internet in accordance with Article 10.1 “Duties of the organizer of information dissemination on the Internet” of Federal Law No. 149 “On information, information technologies and information protection,” according to the Scientific and Technical Center of the State Radio Frequencies Center.

Taking into account the current legal classification of in-game property in the Russian Federation, in order to prevent threats, it is necessary to establish the legal status of game currency and property, loot boxes, streaming platforms and donations

These measures will help control the dissemination of illegal information using gaming and streaming platforms, protect minors from harmful content, and help protect the interests of Russians when handling in-game property and currency, the study authors believe.

RIGHT TO PLAY

But the introduction of strict control can limit the development of the industry, experts are sure. Currently, there are many approaches to regulating game property in the world: using the norms of property law, improving licensing agreements, equating virtual items to the category of other property, Igor Tereshchenko, head of legal research and legal support at Intellectual Analytics, explained to RSpectr. At the same time, he draws attention to the fact that

It is more profitable for the game copyright holder when players do not have clear rights to in-game property

But it would be wrong to say that if players don't have ownership rights to in-game objects, they have no rights to them at all, he notes.

Igor Tereshchenko, "Intelligent Analytics":

– A computer game is an object of intellectual property, therefore, a player, buying a virtual object, acquires a certain right to use it, a right of access, based on a license agreement. That is, the player gets a set of rights, prescribed in the agreement.

According to Hippolyte Dumoulin, in agreements with video game manufacturers, in most cases the copyright holder is the manufacturer itself, and the user's rights to individual virtual game items are valid only for the duration of the platform's existence.