Second Life - real world lawsuit on virtual world copyright infringement

SL business sues for copyright infringement
Tue Jul 3, 2007 12:13pm PDT

By Eric Reuters

SECOND LIFE, July 3 (Reuters) - Second Life entrepreneur Kevin Alderman filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on Tuesday against Second Life resident Volkov Catteneo, and Alderman’s lawyer said he plans to subpoena Linden Lab to force it to disclose Catteneo’s real-world identity.

Alderman (Second Life name: Stroker Serpentine) runs the adult-content company Eros LLC. One of the company’s most popular products is the SexGen bed, virtual furniture that contains more than 150 sex animations and retails for L$12,000 (US$45.11).

In “Eros LLC vs John Doe,” filed in the U.S. District Court in Tampa, Alderman accuses Catteneo of illicitly copying and selling the SexGen bed for as little as L$4,000, sharply cutting into Eros’ sales.

Filing a copyright infringement case against “John Doe” is an established practice in Internet cases where the defendant’s identity is not initially apparent, said Alderman’s lawyer, Francis Taney of Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney. For example, the music industry has filed thousands of “John Doe” lawsuits against people it alleges have illicitly shared music online.

Taney said he will seek Catteneo’s identity, chat histories, and financial records from Linden Lab and PayPal.

“Despite reasonable efforts, Eros does not presently know Defendant’s true identity or address but intends to obtain this information by way of subpoenas directed to one or more internet service providers that are likely to have obtained said information from Defendant,” the lawsuit states.

Catteneo told Reuters in a Second Life interview that Alderman had never been in touch with him. Catteneo said he had sold about 50 of the beds on behalf of a third party who pocketed the proceeds.

Catteneo, who declined to provide his real name, said he doesn’t fear the subpoena. “I’m not some kind of noob,” Catteneo said. “My name isn’t on [Linden Lab's] file. I don’t even have a permanent address [in real life] either.”

Alderman estimated that Eros has sold 100,000 of the beds. Earlier this month the Amsterdam sims, another Alderman creation, were sold to Dutch media firm Boom BV for US$50,000.

The SexGen beds are sold as “no-copy” objects, normally prohibiting their replication. Alderman said he doesn’t know how a copyable version of his product began to circulate in Second Life.

Alderman said he tried to report the copyright violation to Linden Lab in accordance with its Digital Millennium Copyright Act compliance policy, but that he was told to use the in-world “abuse reporting” system.

Linden Lab was not immediately available for comment.

The lawsuit seeks damages equal to three times the damages sustained by Eros or three times the defendant’s profits. But Alderman said he’s less interested in winning damages than stopping the theft of his property.

“We’re not going to sue him for a million dollars,” he said. “I don’t want to crucify the guy. I’m trying to protect my income and my family.”