Who Owns the (Virtual) View? The Copyright Boundaries of Digital Games Images

Aroni, Gabriele ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1343-613X (2025) Who Owns the (Virtual) View? The Copyright Boundaries of Digital Games Images. In: Exploring the Boundaries of Law. Living Signs of Law (3). Springer, Cham, pp. 243-256. ISBN 9783031699894 (hardcover); 9783031699900 (ebook)

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Abstract

Most jurisdictions protect digital game software codes and assets under copyright laws. However, jurists argue that the player might be the creator of content as well. With the novel art of digital game photography, players are no longer passive viewers of the image, but rather dynamic participants in the scene. In the case of digital game photography, the authorship of player-created content is nevertheless dependent on the game software and visual assets. Digital games could thus be considered as an authorial tool, such as a word processor or a 3D modeller. For this reason, while the act of taking pictures within the game, known as screenshotting, constitutes player-generated content, it is nonetheless based on assets and a platform—the digital game—created by the game developer. This leads us to a legal conundrum: are the players the sole owners of their creations, provided they are original enough, or do game companies own them? Are screenshots a derivative work from a copyright-protected digital game, so that players need to obtain permission to use the content they create? In other words, what are the limits for copyright laws as regards screenshots?