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Remember all the handwringing over the fact that games like Pokemon go brought people into their own parks? We covered it just a few weeks ago. Seems a lot of Soylentils were very much in favor of requirements for demanding pre-approval and fees from any company that may someday make any future profit from any citizen who wandered into a city park.
Trial Will Decide Whether Milwaukee Can Require Permits for Using Locations in Augmented Reality
Well it didn't take long for that to be slapped down by the courts.
A judge on Thursday declared as unconstitutional a local Wisconsin ordinance mandating that the makers of augmented reality games get special use permits if their mobile apps were to be played in county parks. The law—the nation's first of its kind—was challenged on First Amendment grounds amid concerns it amounted to a prior restraint of a game maker's speech. What's more, the law was seemingly impossible to comply with.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by urza9814 on Friday July 21 2017, @10:30PM
Well yeah, that seems pretty obvious.
If a company is setting up an actual physical presence, they need a permit. If they're just suggesting people make use of their local parks and recreation facilities, why would that need a permit? I can walk into a local bike shop and they'll be selling all kinds of maps and books about all the local parks and bike trails, clearly making sales and profiting by telling people to go to these places, but THEY don't need a permit. But you do the same thing "on a computer" and suddenly it's illegal? That's just absurd.
The only way I'd accept that they *might* need a permit is if they're establishing a specific event (ie, a limited time and place and seeking a large gathering). But encouraging individual citizens to go out and use the facilities that exist specifically for that purpose sounds like something the parks and rec department should already be doing. What, are they upset that AR companies are making them look bad because they did it better without even trying?