The Metaverse What Everyone Needs to Know®

This book explores whether the Metaverse - understood here as a persistent, immersive, and widely utilized, virtual world - will be the next chapter in the evolution of cyberspace, and what that means for people, business, and society.

The Metaverse. Depending on your perspective, it's the future of the Internet, the next generation of video games, or "a deeply uncomfortable, worse version of Zoom." In many ways, the confusion, overpromising, and hype are reminiscent of how the Internet itself was envisioned in earlier epochs.

A diverse range of firms are investing in Metaverse tech, causing a digital gold rush. There is plausibly a substantial first-mover advantage to be won, which Forbes has estimated to be north of a $1 trillion revenue opportunity. But there have also been questions raised about the utility of the Metaverse, with many firms, including Disney and Meta itself, pivoting to AI even as others like Apple release new products doubling down on spatial computing.

In the trademark question-and-answer style of the What Everyone Needs to Know® series, this book provides an understanding of what the Metaverse is, how it is different from virtual and augmented reality, and the emerging Metaverse economy. It looks at media, politics, speech, crime and security, and identity and privacy in the Metaverse. It explores how governance and law operate — or may operate — in the Metaverse, the rights of bots, and our Meta future.

The stakes are high, and confusion abounds, particularly in the public, making The Metaverse a perfect addition to the What Everyone Needs to Know® series.

Scott J. Shackelford is the Provost Professor of Business Law and Ethics at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He serves as the Executive Director of the Ostrom Workshop and the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research. He is also an Affiliated Scholar at both the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Stanford's Center for Internet and Society. Professor Shackelford's research has been covered by an array of outlets, including Politico, NPR, CNN, Forbes, Time, the Washington Post, and the LA Times. He is the author of The Internet of Things: What Everyone Needs to Know® (Oxford University Press, 2020), Governing New Frontiers in the Information Age: Toward Cyber Peace (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and Managing Cyber Attacks in International Law, Business, and Relations: In Search of Cyber Peace (Cambridge University Press, 2014). He is also the lead editor of the first volume dedicated to cyber peace entitled Cyber Peace: Charting a Path Toward a Sustainable, Stable, and Secure Cyberspace (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

Michael Mattioli is Professor of Law and Louis F. Niezer Faculty Fellow at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, specializing in intellectual property, licensing, and the nexus of law and technology. His scholarship explores the governance of data and knowledge commons, with a recent focus on the legal and policy implications of artificial intelligence. He previously held Microsoft Research Fellowships at Berkeley Law and the University of Michigan. Before going into the field of law, he was a computer engineer.

Jeffrey T. Prince is Professor and Chair of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. He is also the Harold A. Poling Chair in Strategic Management. His specialized fields of research include industrial organization, applied econometrics, strategy, and regulation. He served as Chief Economist at the Federal Communications Commission during 2019 and 2020. He is currently a co-editor at the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, and is on the board of editors at Information Economics and Policy.

João Marinotti is an Associate Professor of Law at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. He is a scholar of property and private law theory whose research focuses on how cognitive science, linguistics, and societal norms affect the regulation of emerging technologies. This focus has led Professor Marinotti to write about topics including data governance, cryptoassets, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. He is also a scholar of legal interpretation, investigating the role of linguistics and philosophy of language in law. His research has been quoted by or cited in Forbes, Financial Times, Slate, The World Economic Forum, and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), among others.

Tables and Figures
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Metaverse
Chapter 2: Metaverse Economics
Chapter 3: Speech and Expression in the Metaverse
Chapter 4: Securing the Metaverse
Chapter 5: Identity in the Metaverse
Chapter 6: Privacy in the Metaverse
Chapter 7: Governing the Metaverse
Chapter 8: AI in the Metaverse
Chapter 9: Our Meta Future?

Index