Présentation
The beginning of 2026 offered us the opportunity to speak for the first time within the Master’s program in Digital Law – specializing in “Intangible and Video Game Law” at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne.
As part of the Master 2 curriculum, we delivered two courses dedicated to the legal issues related to digital law, on the one hand, and to video game and esports law, on the other.
Having frequently addressed these topics, we were delighted to be able to discuss contemporary and technical subjects with future legal professionals: video game ownership, the death of online streamers and platform regulation, social media addiction, Twitch and nudity, blocking pornographic websites and digital identity, Francis Sport and esports, etc.
Master 2 – Intangible and Video Game Law
Led by Professor Geoffray Brunaux, the Master’s program in “Digital Law,” specializing in “Intangible Creations and Video Games,” is designed to train students in the legal rules applicable to creative digital activities.
The Master’s program focuses on teaching the fundamental rules specific to all digital activities (e-commerce law, personal data law, digital criminal law, etc.), complemented by an understanding of the legal issues in the video game industry and new virtual worlds (video games, metaverse, virtual/augmented reality).
Among the subjects taught are Civil and Commercial Contracts: Contractual Techniques, Digital Platform Law, Advanced Literary and Artistic Property, Applied Civil Law (law of persons and property law), and the History of the Video Game Market.
Legal issues of digital activities
Our intervention entitled “Legal Issues of Digital Technology” aims to highlight the way in which the development of digital technologies renews and complicates existing legal frameworks, by confronting students with concrete situations encountered by digital stakeholders (businesses, platforms, users, public authorities).
Through practical examples, our presentation addressed several central issues in digital law:
- the different regimes for online communication,
- the liability of platforms and social networks,
- interactions with press law,
- the challenges related to intellectual property in the digital environment, and
- the obligations arising from the GDPR regarding the protection of personal data.
Through practical and current examples, students were able to see the full range of digital challenges facing professional sectors.
- The legal and judicial framework of social networks: the example of X (Twitter);
- The pornography industry and its role in creating a digital identity;
- The rights of influencers;
- The regulation of athletes’ image rights;
- Artistic creation using or with generative AI tools.
Video game law and esports
Presentation & Examples. The video game and esports law course aimed to introduce students and professionals to the main legal frameworks concerning:
- video games as a cultural and digital industry;
- esports competitions and their structure;
- contractual relationships, legal status, and protection of stakeholders (publishers, players, organizers).
Law, Video Games, and Esports. Conspicuously absent from legislation, video games are only given a single, discreet definition within the French General Tax Code:
Art. 220 terdecies of the French General Tax Code. A video game is defined as any recreational software made available to the public on a physical medium or online, incorporating elements of artistic and technological creation, offering one or more users a series of interactions based on a scripted storyline or simulated situations, and presented in the form of animated images, with or without sound.
However, its legal framework has been the subject of much debate in recent years, initially driven by the recognition of copyright, then by the application of the unitary regime for software, before finally being addressed in 2009 under a distributive regime.
Similarly, the legal framework for competitive video gaming—esports—has also been defined within the Internal Security Code, which prohibits the term “esport,” as it is semantically too close to a discipline whose legal framework was specifically denied to esports law.
Perspectives and challenges of the sector. This module of law, linked to a contemporary and particularly rich sector, addresses a variety of cross-cutting themes: the ownership of video games and, by extension, digital products and services, freedom of expression in media works, the conditions for organizing esports events, etc.
Our course concluded with an analysis of various themes associated with the contemporary evolution of the video game and esports sectors:
- The links between sports and esports;
- Competitive video games and money laundering networks;
- The health of underage esports players;
- Esports & Esportainment
- Dark patterns & video games
Finally, and most importantly, we thank all the Master’s students for their participation and involvement in these seminars. Thank you, “Francis Sport”.
