Can You Be Arrested When You're Playing Pokemon Go?

Pokemon has become an international phenomenon. By augmenting reality allowing players view otherwise-invisible Pokemon in the world to catch and train, Nintendo and Niantic Labs had created a truly cute and large monster.

However, the GPS-based game leads players to different areas. Sometimes, these are private properties that serve as 'gyms' or 'pokecenters' where they could perform special activities.

One incident involved people flocking to a church because it was a Pokemon Gym. Another was that the presence of "offensive Pokemon" such as "Koffing" and "Weezing" in the Holocaust Museum had brought in people who do not observe the Museum's sanctity just to catch Pokemon.

Can people be imprisoned for doing this?

British Privacy Lawyer John Spyrou talks about how this could all come to be.

Mr Spyrou believes that if strangers head to a person's garden simply because they want to catch a Pokemon, they can still be charged as trespassing. The resident still has grounds to call the police even if the situation will descend into a minor scare.

Mr Spyrou also made clear that Niantic is not "legally responsible" for people heading to locations with Pokemon as shown in their map. The Niantic Terms and Conditions for playing Pokemon Go may include players are responsible for local rules and must detach themselves from liability by not brekaing local laws.