If you are using, say, timings of people playing a video game as data in an experiment, as long as you don’t use images from the game or pictures of people playing the game without appropriate permissions, then you’re probably OK, but I’d ask your university’s legal department for advice before starting such experiments. It’s their job to protect the university from ignorant (of the law) researchers like us. If y’all have a law school, go see if there’s a legal clinic that’s there to a specific case like this (research on the edge of legality). Otherwise, I’d check with your grants compliance office since they try to protect you, too. I’d do this even if you’re not grant fund on this project. You are also going to need to run you plans past your institution’s IRB and demonstrate that you human subjects will be treated humanely and according to requirements.
Bill Barth
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