Comments on: Stroker’s Bed Heads to Court

By: B.L. Ochman's weblog: Internet marketing strategy, social media trends, news and commentary.

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:28:14 +0000

Virtual Sex Machine Inspires Real-Life Lawsuit

Well this ought to do a lot to encourage corporate types to enter into Second Life marketing campaigns! Lawyers, the scourge of first life, have reared their ugly heads in the metaverse. The 3D virtual world now has its first real life copyright lawsui…

By: Jessica Holyoke

Jessica Holyoke — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 12:44:10 +0000

even if the defendant made the beds wholly on his own and it doesn’t infringe stroker’s copyright, by selling them as sexgen beds, he’s violating his trademark. Its still against the law.

By: Azgodeth

Azgodeth — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 11:04:19 +0000

according to the paperwork, theyre trying to sue him for “making and selling” someone else’s stuff…
if he MADE it, he has the RIGHT to sell it, no matter what name he puts on it afterwords. your wasting alot of your money, and the courts time with yet annother frivolous suit you wont win. give it up, and get over yourself.
the product in question isnt even worth the money thats being thrown around over it.

By: Broken

Broken — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:46:02 +0000

God, I hate Second Life so much right now.

By: Prokofy Neva

Prokofy Neva — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:41:16 +0000

Nick, why isn’t Linden Lab joined to the suit by negligence for allowing this “demonstrable exploit” to exist?

Did you ask LL to close this exploit, is it a known issue, is it not fixable? Can it affect it others?

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:00:10 +0000

There’s a lot of speculation here and mis-interpretation of the news articles. I am neither Stroker nor Volkov, however I do have direct first hand knowledge of the facts. Let me clear up a few points:-

Volkov has, through a demonstrable exploit obtained a full perm copy of Sexgen bases.

These are NOT re-engineered, reverse-engineered or recreated products.

They are identical digital copies of the originals including all scripts, animations and packaging which displays the trademarked SexGen name.

LL would not respond to the DMCA because Volkov is not marketing these from a store, he is selling by word of mouth directly from his inventory.

Apart from his own financial interest, Stroker is bringing this case to set a precedent to protect all IP owners in SL.

Remember how content creators started shutting down businesses over copybot? If this is not nipped in the bud by decisive action it could become a disaster for SL.

Maybe some content creators would do well to consider that they could be affected next and offer some words of support for Stroker.

It’s only a game? – Your world, your imagination…. if you have no imagination then…yeah it’s just a game.

Nick

By: Coincidental Avatar

Coincidental Avatar — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 01:22:29 +0000

I forgot that a Copybot descendant could copy scripts for a while.

By: Coincidental Avatar

Coincidental Avatar — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:18:23 +0000

@Pamela

Game or not, RL legislation “applies” in SL. It is just the US law enforcement which occurs rather randomly.

***************************************************************************
According to Reuters, LL and PayPal have received subpoenas. This US subpoena process is interesting and problematic. The judge does a fishing expedition with them to learn more about the case. I’m looking forward information how LL reacts to subpoena. I’m not commenting more, because I don’t intend to help any side.

Volkov Catteneo basically says that all the information he(?) has filed about himself is false and doesn’t lead to him in RL. I think that Volkov Catteneo is still in SL, just in case if somebody from LL is reading this and now starts to feel being ridiculed.

I guess that the real person behind PayPal account etc. will claim that he is very surprised and never heard about SL. Yawn.

By: Pamela

Pamela — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:09:40 +0000

IMO I know that first of all Linden Labs never ignores a complaint on the DMCA, Its the ONLY thing they are good at and I know for a fact that those products have been pulled because why I looked. There is no way he could get an exact copy unless uh oh people He gave it to him and if he did he got what he deserved to give it away. now he is crying. Copy bot or those other copy scripts dont let you access scripts so he cant claim some magic formula got his items stolen from him. So in order to have a exact copy seems to be the question here. To give someone something you created then cry if they use it, your own fault sounds to me someone has got greedy especially if he is asking for 3x the amount he lost AND that the items are pulled. Everyone gets copied in this game but MOST of us are satisfied with the pulling of the duplicate copies of our products some people just want the money I for one am boycotting Sexgen and all his products and will be encouraging others to do the same. Someone who would do something this underhanded is not to be trusted or worth my hard earned dollar or linden for that matter. THIS IS A GAME and if you are making your living in a game you should already know that its never stable or ever going to be there forever. sounds like he needs to go get a job and quit depending on a game to pay his bills

By: Obscure Doodad

Obscure Doodad — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:31:25 +0000

shockwave, I understand your perspective, but it doesn’t work that way in civil litigation. The divorce judges have already seen all the ugly accusations that children were molested. They hear them every day, just like they hear claims of spousal abuse. It’s part of the norm now in divorce filing hearings. The judges know that and they won’t sign onto it without evidence. That is why the subpoenas and Age Verify will be so profoundly dangerous. It is concrete, undeniable evidence that you did seek access to the darkest portions of SL. The accusations that you did this doesn’t get your settlement skewed. The evidence proving the claim, obtained by subpoena, is what kills you. And don’t delude yourself. By the time you’re in your 30′s or 40′s and you have your assets gutted like this, your life is destroyed. You won’t have enough years left to recover. There will be no retirement for you. You will work until you die.

But enough of this. The issue is the copyright focus of the thread. The reality of LL subpoena response is what led to this tangent.