When Pokemon GO was in its early stages of launch, the hype was beyond anything anyone could have imagined. It created massive crowds and also mad dashes whenever a rare Pokemon was discovered. While the game was great for AR technology, there have been negative side-effects as well.
This includes how the hordes of people playing Pokemon GO in Milwaukee’s county parks have left quite a huge mess and damage to the property, so much so that according to a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (via VentureBeat), an ordinance has been issued in which it will require Pokemon GO’s developers Niantic to obtain a permit to use the county’s parks as locations to catch Pokemon.
Apparently thousands of dollars worth of damages has been done because of the craze of the game, and Milwaukee is looking to hold Niantic responsible for it, although there is a chance that this might not hold up. As Avvo chief legal officer Josh King explained to GamesBeat last year, it seems that Niantic is within their First Amendment rights to use the county parks in their game.
“If you want to look at the pure legal issue there, Niantic or Pokémon can associate any piece of property with, let’s call it a virtual signal. They’re well within their First Amendment rights to do that.” That being said, Niantic will have to file a lawsuit if they are hoping to overturn the ordinance, but as VentureBeat notes, nothing of that sort has happened yet.
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