If we had to choose two words that in a year have gone from being known by a very narrow niche of professionals to becoming the topic of the moment, these are the NFTs and the Metaverse. In fact, in recent months there is no talk of anything else and not only in the tech community but also in the academic field, so much so that the Luiss University of Rome has organized a cycle of free seminars in English, open to all, face-to-face and online, from theme “NFT & Metaverse Vs Law”.
The seminars, organized by the Chair of Innovation Law & Regulation of Prof. Fabiana Di Porto, they want to deepen in each appointment how the different branches of law will be able to adapt to the new challenges that these technologies are proposing to both scholars and legislators. If and when the Metaverse is a reality, will it be necessary to reciprocate all the rules or will it be enough to adapt the existing ones as we did when the internet arrived in everyone’s homes twenty years ago?
It should be remembered that for a year the European Union has been working on new digital rules with which on the one hand they want to correct the distortions created by the concentration of power in the hands of a few large players and on the other they want to lay the foundations for that. that will come in the next decade.
The Metaverse
The Metaverso it is considered the future of the internet and it can be identified with a virtual world in which we will have experiences similar to those of the real world. The concept sees among its sources of inspiration the story of 2011 Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, but also in this case he left the niche of science fiction enthusiasts when Mark Zuckerberg announced months ago that his company, Facebook, would change its name to Meta, demonstrating the new direction, also in terms of investments. took over the next decade, time Zuckerberg believes will be needed to develop the Metaverse as he envisioned it.
This is confirmed by one of the guests of the seminar, Angelo MazzettiHead of Public Policy of Meta for Southern Europe, who stated that the Metaverse will be born from the collaboration between developers, companies, academics, and will be built starting from the European values of freedom of expression, protection of privacy, transparency, equity and inclusion.
What regulation for the Metaverse?
It remains to understand with what rules we will enter the Metaverse. The seminars will address the problem with the help of academics, representatives of institutions and companies at the forefront, ranging from intellectual property, to finance, to contracts.
The other guest, Oreste Tom Thumb, Professor of Constitutional Law and Media Law at Bocconi, recalled the similar debate that took place in the United States to the initiates of the 90s on the need or not to create an ad hoc law for the unborn Internet. For Chicago judge Easterbrook, whose speech was later published under the title Cyberspace and the Law of the HorseApplying too much sectoral rules to the Internet would cause one to lose sight of the general principles of the legal system which, precisely as such, should not be afraid of venturing into unknown paths. According to Tom Thumb, we shouldn’t even fall into the temptation to think of the Metaverse as an absolute best or worst world, from a utopian or dystopian point of view. Not a separate world, therefore, but connected, in which relationships are reflected in a different way.
This digital constitutionalism it should be made not only of principles but also of procedures in which the platforms are an active part through the adoption of codes of conduct. Active collaboration between user and platform is therefore the way forward for Pollicino, not the easiest, but the one that can lead to better results.
One thing is certain, starting a debate now can only benefit today’s Internet as well.