Eros is a company founded by ex-plumber Kevin Alderman to make
and sell digital goods in Second Life. One of the products was a
SexGen bed, a software application that allows two characters to
have sex in the game.
Alderman became aware of similar beds being sold by someone else
for less than the $46 cost of his software. He has now lodged a
copyright and trade mark infringement law suit against that
individual, so far identified only by his Second Life name, Volkov
Catteneo.
Francis Taney of Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney in the US is
acting on Alderman's behalf. "He discovered that someone had found
some kind of technical exploit that enabled this person to make
copies of Kevin's objects," Taney told OUT-LAW Radio. "This person was making the
copies and passing them off as copies made by Kevin's company using
Kevin's mark, the SexGen mark, and was selling them at a bargain
basement price, undercutting Kevin and taking his sales. As you
might imagine this could be a real threat to his sales and his
business so that is why we brought we suit."
Second Life is an online universe which reached mainstream
popularity earlier this year. Blue chip companies opened offices
within the game and Reuters news agency even appointed a Second
Life correspondent to trawl for stories within the game.
The game now has some real life intellectual property problems,
with the two sides headed for court over the virtual tussle.
Taney has filed a suit alleging copyright and trade mark
infringement, but before he can go any further he must find out who
Catteneo is. He has sent subpoenas to Linden Labs, the company
behind Second Life, and to payments firm PayPal in an attempt to
divine Catteneo's true identity.
"We have served subpoenas on Linden Research Incorporated in San
Francisco and Paypal Incorporated in San Jose," said Taney. "We
have asked them all the personal identifying information that they
have with respect to this person and in Linden's case also the
complete records of his online activity because that will get right
to the heart of what was done here.
Linden Labs said that it was looking into the case, but would
not say whether or not it would hand over identifying information.
"We support the rights of copyright holders to protect their
copyrighted works in Second Life," said a statement from the
company. "We have received the subpoena for information relevant to
the case and are reviewing it."
Though the case is unique, Taney believes that the principles of
protection of someone's work underlie the whole affair. He says
that the case's unusual origins should not obscure the fundamental
issues involved.
"It is a little bit more exotic [than other cases]," he said.
"At the bottom of it, [Second Life] is an internet hosted computer
simulation so I don't see it as a monumental stretch or much of a
stretch at all.
"This guy, he was a plumbing contractor and he gave up that
business because he was excited about this thing. He has some
ability in this area. He's making his living doing it and it's just
not right," said Taney.
Second Life's terms of use make clear that players "retain
copyright and other intellectual property rights with respect to
Content [they] create in Second Life".
