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Blitz, Marc Jonathan --- "The First Amendment, video games, and virtual reality training" [2018] ELECD 1380; in Barfield, Woodrow; Blitz, J. Marc (eds), "Research Handbook on the Law of Virtual and Augmented Reality" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 242

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Law of Virtual and Augmented Reality

Editor(s): Barfield, Woodrow; Blitz, J. Marc

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781786438584

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: The First Amendment, video games, and virtual reality training

Author(s): Blitz, Marc Jonathan

Number of pages: 33

Abstract/Description:

In 2011, the Supreme Court made clear (following the example of many lower courts in the previous decade) that video games count as protected “speech.” Although the video games it addressed in that case were generally two-dimensional ones, the Court’s reasoning seems to apply just as forcefully to games in immersive 3D environments. But this does not mean that all activities performed in virtual reality count as First Amendment speech – and it is therefore with exploring more carefully how courts and legal scholars might answer questions about whether (and when) a particular VR activity counts as “speech.” This chapter addresses such questions, focusing on the specific example of whether and when use of VR environments for training and development of skills (such as flying a plane or shooting a gun) counts as protected First Amendment activity.