Her research focuses on video game and copyright law. She also has interests in art games, immersive interactive installations, and non-digital games such as board games and live-action role-playing games.
The Authorship Dilemma in Playable Art: Exploring the Copyright Protection of the Integration of Interaction and Art Under the European Legal Framework
FROG 2026 – Talk
As video games increasingly converge with contemporary art, “Playing Art” challenges traditional copyright paradigms, particularly concerning the concept of authorship. Under the European Union legal framework, copyright protection requires an “author’s own intellectual creation,” a standard that typically maintains a strict dichotomy between unprotectable “rules/mechanics of play” and protectable “audiovisual expressions.” However, in playable art, these elements are often inextricably linked.
This paper explores the legal dilemmas surrounding authorship and copyright protection when art is designed to be played. The research examines case studies such as the copyright disputes involving teamLab’s immersive interactive installations, alongside art games reliant on mechanical narratives, like Gorogoa. In these works, the final artistic presentation relies heavily on the immediate interaction between algorithmic systems and the players. This raises critical legal questions: Does the player’s intervention alter traditional authorship? More importantly, does the specific combination and integration of “interactive mechanics” and “audiovisual art” constitute a holistic, protectable form of expression under the law?
This study argues that while the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) categorized video games as “complex works” in Nintendo v PC Box, the current framework still struggles to accommodate “playable art.” By analyzing these cases, this paper advocates for a re-examination of the legal and aesthetic status of this integration, exploring the potential of recognizing the synthesis of interaction and art as a holistic form of expression. Addressing the FROG 2026 theme, this research provides an interdisciplinary theoretical perspective for institutions developing and protecting interactive cultural assets in the digital age.