Technology and Law on VR Porn – Patent and Lawsuits is the Talk of the Town
People are now abreast of the new technology that extends to the sexual side of things. For the past years, virtual adult content is taking media by storm as the technology keeps on improving and gets affordable for everyone. Even entrepreneurs are excited to jump into the adult industry to find a medium to make profit from. Include the fact that Virtual Reality’s immersive components are desired for porn viewing to be an intimate experience, and it is off to a great start for the adult entertainment’s future. Of course, the only thing that can possibly disrupt the virtual reality dream of the adult industry, to start with, it is patents.
All About Patent 6409599
The National Law Review reported two weeks ago, Virtual Immersion Technologies LLC had started patent reinforcement. With Patent 6409599, an “interactive virtual reality performance theater entertainment system”, it is at the center of a trickle of active proceedings – including one associated with teledildonics and another one to VR porn – and VR companies, even though not yet sued are starting to be alarmed.
So, what is the patent about? A lot. If you are planning to develop an educational experience or entertainment that a community can enjoy utilizing VR devices like head mounted displays, this is most evidently included in this patent. It references in the abstract both pre-recorded and live content, along with the likelihood of voice commands or handheld devices controlling action; theoretically, almost any VR entertainment medium could be perceived to fall into the patent 6409599’s scope.
The “‘599 patent” was initially outlined for a theater entertainment setup, but could possibly involve VR operations mostly. It started in 2002 when the patent was initially assigned to Ham On Rye Technologies Inc., a Missouri-based VR theater creator that got the attention of the press in the 90’s. Regardless of the promising commencement, Ham On Rye does not appear to be too devoted in its patent: as per the initial thirteen years on the record, the patent has expired twice, because of evasion of maintenance dues.
Come end of 2015, the patent was owned by 3D Immersive Interactive Lights, LLC, a Missouri company, before switching to the Texas-based Virtual Immersion Technologies apprehended for 8 months until this last August. Virtual Immersion Technologies is now strongminded to make use of the patent either by suing other businesses who creates their own or to produce their own VR entertainment system.
VirtuaDolls and the like are main targets for patent trolling since sex-related start-up companies are unlikely to have enough funding to engage in an extensive legal battle.
What is the outcome of the entire legal act? The crowdfunded Virtual Reality games like Girls of Arcadia and VirtuaDolls that gained over $100,000 las spring just shows an illustration of how freaked are some industry members.
Only weeks when Virtual Immersion Technologies started chasing litigation, Eos Creative Group LLC has virtually removed all their crowdfunding information from their campaign site (the only vivid text that remains is “VirtuaDolls Game Controller”, even the VirtuaDolls project name has been deleted from the title) and are declining to publicly comment about the condition. (Questions and comments from backers who post on the crowdfunding page are even rebuked and directed to communicate only through the team’s email.)
Nothing shows a securing opportunity for VirtuaDolls. But will the patent’s impact be felt outside the closing of one crowdfunded VR porn entertainment? This is not the only time that the adult venture has conformed with patent trolling: a few of smart adult toys and teledildonics faced legal action the past year.
Few of the VR porn businesses are scared and are trying to work out what they should do next when the initial lawsuit came up. Upon talking to an anonymous executive, who protects himself from any legal retribution, said that he had not been aware that the patent existed. From the time the lawsuit hit the media, their company has been trying to think of the effects it could bring on their future campaigns; one more company that aimed for comment appeared to be similarly taken out by the lawsuit broadcast.
It is likely that the only lawsuits that will be filed are the existing ones, and that other adult VR projects will survive to stay beneath the radar, or they can have the patent licensed legally and continue to fulfill out VR Porn fantasies. It can kill your boner if Virtual Immersion Technologies is like TZU Technologies (who holds the disreputable, teledildonics patent, which has done more litigation instead of innovation) – it can only be the start of your engaging VR fantasies.
Within a few years back there are a handful of companies that were sued by TZU Technologies due to patent violation and even put down one company in the process. It is worth noting that there is a company that had TZU to withdraw from litigation. That company is Kickstarter, already a huge, sex-focused starting company.
It focuses to one of the troubling aspects of this legal mischiefs: VirtuaDolls and the like are perfect targets for patent trolling just because these are small startup companies and their resources are limited to pursue litigation to the end, and most evidently to end up paying or worst is to close business.
This only shows that Virtual immersion Technologies can also do the same and is going through the same path as it chose to target the VR projects in the adult industry compared to a variety of VR entertainment businesses. Creating more innovative ideas is declining, due to the humiliation of being employed in the adult industry and the decreasing profits, that pushes XXX tech’s away. The result? The people who enjoys creative porn will suffer.
VR Porn Hawkers Caught in China
Customers are offered to buy adult content by online stores when they buy VR glasses – which is prohibited in China. Chinese authorities took things to the next level when they issued 19 online stores arrest warrants who gave adult videos as freebies to customers who bought VR (virtual reality) gadgets, as per Xinhua, state news agency, reported.
December 15 the first warrant was released in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese technology center across Hong Kong border. Liu, the suspect, operates a store that offers VR glasses on Tmall, an upscale ecommerce website, which is owned by Alibaba. As per the report, Liu had provided 700 or more customers with porn videos, to gain more profit and interest more buyers.
From then, nine more warrants have been issued by Shenzhen government authorities, all are about online stores that gives free pornographic videos upon selling VR glasses. The freebies are delivered by the store operators through cloud services, chat groups, or storage devices shipped along with the VR device. It is not certain if the clips were regular videos or in virtual reality. As per Shenzhen People’s Procuratorate’s online statement, a public prosecution department, the approver of the arrests, it has been a common practice to give out porn videos as per some suspects and an “undocumented rule” in the VR sale industry. The office could not give immediate feedback when communicated by Sixth Tone.
In China, pornography is illegal since 1997 when a law prohibits the making and distribution of explicit content. The punishments range from fines to imprisonment, subjective on the crimes scope and severity. For the past decades, the growing internet has preordained authorities have had to regulate a continuously increasing way in which adult content is spread. As it becomes harder to check for illegal content, a lot of Chinese internet businesses have closed their cloud services all in all. The QVOD CEO, the organization behind Kuaibo, now an offline app, was sentences a jail time of 42 months and a 1 million yuan fine ($144,000) for disseminating lewd videos on the platform, in September 2016.
Search results on online stores Tmall and Taobao associated with “VR glasses” comes up with multiple shops that promotes with erotic messages and images indicating that adult porn is free for customers that pay. On an e-store, a banner shows “Free unlimited materials”. A customer review on a Tmall store that offers Chinese branded VR glasses informs possible customers that “the SD card has quite a few sources – you understand the kind that I have in mind.”
A New Sex, Technology, & the Law Blog, Launched by Chicago Patent Lawyer – Podcast also available!
Sex robots, teledildonics, and a patent lawyer may seem an unusual combination, this is not the case for a 32-year old Maxine Lynn, a Chicago lawyer, it is a perfect combination. In a realm where sex gadgets, like life-like sex dolls, remote controlled dildos, and VR porn are booming from underground to bedrooms around the world, Maxine is beginning a podcast and blog to discover the connections of technology, sex, and the law.
Breakthrough on culture and technology have made the porn and sex technology industries to be multi-billion dollar companies, but still with substantial ongoing challenges. Per Lynn, “My personal interest in creating sex toys that I have invented made me realize that these commerce cope with really unique matters.” She adds, “The porn industry faces a collection of difficulties distinct to others, and they wear as much significance to buyers as they are for the developers. It is the moment to start an actual discussion.”
The blog, titled “Unzipped: Sex, Tech and the Law”, highlights thorough articles from Lynn and guest writers on the problems faced by the porn industry in distributing, and earning from, pleasure on sale. Given a decade of experience as an attorney focusing on trademarks, patents, and copyrights, Lynn sets in an exceptional viewpoint. The preliminary article of the blog glances on “The Teledildonics Patent”, and how this, under the shadow of patent trolling, nearly stopped revolution in remote sex toys in its paths.
Patent is only one of the many difficulties in the sex technology business. The possibility for hacks into the connected sex toys or data breach associated with the “Internet of Things” are grave threats, and have already appeared on one class action litigation. To add, ethical inquiries are ascending, an example is about sex dolls, like what could transpire if they are designed to appear like kids?
The adult industry has been facing its own multiple issues. An article issued on the Unzipped blog looks at another patent trolling issues that targeted a major source of porn sites. In addition, piracy of movies in violation of the copyright law has directed to the decease of multiple porn developer businesses. The businesses deal with disapproval, and marginal discrimination, from multiple aspects. Trademarks that contains adult expression are refuted as “iniquitous” at government trademark agencies. Main search engines have blocked sexually-explicit advertising of keywords, and porn websites are banned from access in community Wi-Fi areas. Prop60, in California, failed to tighten the regulation on condom usage in sex scenes, and British government now has a bill under deliberation which would monitor the nature of sexual acts permitted to appear in online porn acts.
“I will make use of my law and technology expertise as a host, including my experience as a human being,” as per Lynn. “For instance, we will explore the effect of high-tech porn and sex advancements coming from a human viewpoint. What will be the future of sex 10 or 20 years from now? How will the human interaction be with or will there even be inside the bedroom? Will these technologies make interactive human sex obsolete?”
Lynn’s business, Unzipped Media, Inc., is progressing out the Sex Tech Patent IndeXXX notice simultaneously. The bulletin comprises an increasing collection of sex toys/tech, sexual aids, and condoms patents statistics. It gives links to numerous newly distributed sex technology patents, together with summary information and categorizations. Using an inimitable categorization formula and proprietary search algorithm, the notice gives a resource to monitor trends, previously unavailable, for those curious to know about it or for those in the sex tech commerce. Now, the introductory version is accessible, which encompasses the initial part of 2016. The next issue will cover the latter half and will be published in February 2017.
“A patent record may not be as energizing as another sex toy or porn genre, yet for the adult business, it is just as imperative,” Lynn stated. “Hard data and details about new sex advances are accessible at the release, with related points and assessments on the podcast and blog. Together they put the condition of this growing industry at a client’s fingertips.”
