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Niantic faces a class action lawsuit for encouraging trespassing on private property:
When Niantic released Pokemon Go, it randomly placed Pokémon, Pokéstops and Pokémon Gyms all over the world. Players of the game wander the real world and use smartphones to capture Pokemon, buy items and fight Pokemon Gym leaders.
"To create that immersive world, Niantic made unauthorized use of Plaintiff's and other Class members' property by placing Pokéstops and Pokémon gyms thereupon or nearby," said Jennifer Pafiti in the lawsuit. "In so doing, Niantic has encouraged Pokémon Go's millions of players to make unwanted incursions onto the properties of plaintiff, and other members of the class, a clear and ongoing invasion of their use and enjoyment of their land from which defendants have profited and continue to profit."
Due to the randomized placement of the Pokémon, Pokéstops and Pokémon Gyms, they have turned up in some unwanted locations such as in houses, cemeteries and museums. According to Jeffrey Marder, a man living in New Jersey, he received at least five unwelcome visitors that wanted access to his backyard to catch Pokémon within the first week of the game's launch.
"Plaintiff and other Class members have all suffered and will continue to suffer harm and damages as a result of Defendants' unlawful and wrongful conduct. A class action is superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of this controversy," said Pafiti.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Zinho on Wednesday August 03 2016, @05:18PM
Niantic did NOT randomly place gyms or pokestops. They leveraged Ingress portals which were crowdsourced over the previous 3 years.
I play Ingress, and if the ingress portals are being leveraged then Pokemon Go is doing it wrong. I've never seen an ingress portal in anyone's backyard, nor at the edge of a crumbling cliff. The rules for portal locations say that they must be publicly accessible (giving tours == accessible, churches with open-door policies are fair game) and SAFE. The private residences and nuclear power plants where people have been led by virtual pocket monsters should never have been there if they were using the Ingress portal list.
All of those were expected to be validated as "public" property by trusted users.
LMFTFY:
All of those were <snip> validated as publicly accessible by Niantic employees.
Yes, portal submissions are crowdsourced. No, it's not only "trusted users" making suggestions, it's open to everyone (although only at limited times; right now submissions are closed). The submission list is scrubbed slowly by an overwork team directly employed by Niantic, so there is no opening for an appeal to "the crowd" to externalize fault.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin