Legal aspects of e-sports with special emphasis on copyright law
Ewelina Szatkowska
Uniwersytet GdańskiAbstract
E-sport has become a popular social phenomenon, and its representatives
are entities with significant popularity and marketing value. National and
international organizations and associations of such players are established
in order to organize their competitions. The development of e-sport makes it
questionable whether it can be treated on an equal footing with traditional
sport. Its potential is recognised by national governments, international organisations and even the International Olympic Committee has also taken
a position on its possible recognition as a sport. This paper aims to present the topic of e-sport which mainly involves the
use of intellectual property rights. Within the framework of e-sport, players
each time use computer games, the status of which in the intellectual property law remains in question. In the games there are also characters that may
constitute a separate subject of copyright protection, additionally in the case
of athletes, there is an issue of entities entitled to consent to the digitization
of their image. Another important subject remains the matter of legal qualification of an e-sport event, performances of individual players as pieces of
work within the meaning of copyright or artistic performances within the
meaning of related rights.
This paper aims to present the topic of e-sport which mainly involves the use of intellectual property rights. Within the framework of e-sport, players each time use computer games, the status of which in the intellectual property law remains in question. In the games there are also characters that may constitute a separate subject of copyright protection, additionally in the case of athletes, there is an issue of entities entitled to consent to the digitization of their image. Another important subject remains the matter of legal qualification of an e-sport event, performances of individual players as pieces of work within the meaning of copyright or artistic performances within the meaning of related rights.
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