Extended Reality and the Law

Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service. Tomorrow’s virtual worlds will be governed, at least at first, by today’s legal and regulatory regimes. How will privacy law, torts, IP, or even criminal law apply in ‘extended reality’ (XR)? Drawing from the discussion at a conference hosted earlier this year at Stanford University called “Existing Law and Extended Reality,” this episode asks what challenges will emerge from human behavior and interaction– with one another and with technology– inside XR experiences, and what choices governments and tech companies will face in addressing those challenges. This episode of The Sunday Show was produced by Tech Policy Press audio and reporting intern Rebecca Rand, and features the voices of experts such as Brittan Heller (the organizer of the Stanford conference), Mary Anne Franks, Kent Bye, Jameson Spivack, Joseph Palmer, Eugene Volokh, Amie Stepanovich, Susan Aaronson, Florence G’Sell, and Avi Bar Zeev. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of the episode. Justin Hendrix: Good morning. I’m Justin Hendrix, editor of Tech Policy Press, a nonprofit media venture at the intersection of technology and democracy. Welcome to The Sunday Show. We have a bit of a new format today, and before we start, I want to introduce you to a new voice, Rebecca. Rebecca Rand: Hi, I’m Rebecca Rand. I’m a science journalist and Tech Policy Press‘s audio intern this summer. Justin Hendrix: I am so pleased that Rebecca is joining us this summer. She is a master’s candidate at the…Extended Reality and the Law