Second Life slapped with counterfeit sex toy suit

A pair of Second Life entrepreneurs are suing the game's creator, Linden Lab, for allowing other players to sell "knockoffs" of their virtual sex organs, erotic poses, designer clothing, and other trademarked items. Kevin Alderman (known in Second Life as "Stroker Serpentine") alleges that Linden facilitates and profits from …

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

What's more surprising to me...

Is that anyone is still wasting their first life on this virtual sack of shit.

[Charles Manning]

I'm a virtual lawyer

With a virtual degree. I'll take them to vcourt. But I'll want real money though. Then when I'm done with that, I'll get all the vpeople that use your vsex aids and file a vclass action that they don't work.

Surely the whole idea of this second life thing is that you can have experiences unrelated to the real world. You can screw a hooker, rob a bank, rip off someone's IP, sue them, do whatever and it doesn't really matter because this is Second Life and just a fantasy.

Munchy Flower: Welcome to the fantasy of being ripped off!

[Stuart 14]

well F@ck me

Unless somebody owns the patent obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

open source sexgen

couple of things. 1 he may have been one of the early adopters of SL and created his version of the sexgen ( written in LSL). 2. many more better skilled folks have arrived since then and have a better animations b. better builds and textures. 3. The open source version of MPL is out there as well and that cuts at his bottom line.. eg any semi skilled person can make a sexgen bed or thingy and sell it ... even cheaper or free

[barfridge]

A new record?

Second Life would have to have the highest articles written vs actual players out of almost any online game. I've never met anybody who has ever played the game, yet I hear stories about it all the time. How is it so?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Aristotles monkey

I agree - and have never understood the need for a second life. I have enough stuff to do in this life.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wah! Wah!

"Teacher I was playing the bad kids and they keep picking on me! It's not fair!Wah! Wah!"

In a twist of irony, welcome to the real world virtual losers!

[Bad Beaver]

It's still there?

I didn't know this thing still existed. I always wonder where adults find the time for this crap.

[Anton Ivanov]

re: What's more surprising to me...

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Second_Life_sex_causes_divorce&in_article_id=402338

See the pictures for yourself. They will answer your question.

[It wasnt me]

I get it.

I read this article once, and thought I was dreaming. Then I read it again and I wasn't. Now I get it though. You made it all up didn't you?

This couldn't really happen. Not even in Merica. Could it ?

[Destroy All Monsters]

Wait until...

...the constitution-defending anti-dildo officials of Alabama hear about this.

[John70]

Second Life

Don't know about Second Life but these people need to get a life.

[Dana W]

@Aristotles

I have to spend three hours a week there because of a personal obligation. But shutting down Sadville is the second most fun thing I've done with software other than flattening Vista drives for Linux installs.

[Anonymous Coward]

(untitled)

I admit to getting bored with the article about a quarter of the way in, but did I understand correctly ?

In this virtual world, a designer/company is getting ripped off by others, and so chooses to sue the God/Government authority (and in the real world no less) rather than taking out a civil action against the ones doing the ripping off? Just seems a bit misplaced to me.

Surely they should be taking the alleged perpetrator to virtual court and suing the virtual pants off them for all the virtual money they can get ?

[JohnG]

South Park?

Have South Park done anything on Sadville? I know they did an episode on WoW but I'm sure Sadville would be rich pickings for South Park.

Stories like this help reinforce my (low) opinions of Sadville and its patrons.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not just the ISPs

If this company is complaining about people ripping off his copyrighted products, how come on that XStreetSL.com store he is selling Aviator sunglasses? Isn't that Rayban copyrighted?

He can't complain about other people nicking his SL ideas, if he is stealing his own ideas from RealLife. (And I doubt is stops at just the sunglasses)

[James Hughes 1]

Surely

The 'crime' is being commented in SL, so that's where the court case should be?

[Richard 81]

@Aristotles...

A virtual sack...

But real shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

prior art

... isn't there a clear case of prior art here dating back about as long as man (and woman) has existed, so this guy ripped off evolution / your god creator person.

[g e]

Hahaha. Cock.

Pun intended.

[Cameron Colley]

The reason they are suing Linden:

They are suing "Linden Labs" because the T&Cs of Second Life state that anything you produce "in world" is your own and that you own the copyright -- they also state that they comply with the DMCA in this regard.

This is akin to paying a web hosting company to host you digital photography, protect your copyright, and allow you to sell access to it -- then finding that another customer managed to copy your photographs and is hosting them with the same company but giving them away. Since you are paying for copyright protection and hosting you ask the company to take down the infringing site, and they don't.

You may not like Second Life, or even see its appeal, but this has very little to do with the actual "game" and is about contracts, the DMCA, and copyright.

I'm always interested to know what the people who supposedly have "Real Lives" actually do that makes them so much more special than those who like to use Second Life -- do you all go straight from work to the gym, then do some charity work, then teach your kids quantum theory, make love to your beautiful partners then make some more notes in the margin of King Leah as you drift off to sleep?

I think you just watch TV with your other half, go on the odd bike ride, have a few drinks with mates in the pub and feel smug because you're not having conversations about politics, philosophy or art with people from across the world while playing around in a virtual environment.

Personally, I find people in Second Life more open minded and less judgemental than in real life -- meaning conversation is much more wide ranging and stimulating than most in real life. It also gives one the opportunity to communicate people with diverse social and political backgrounds from all over the world.

[adrianww]

@Cameron

No, we have conversations about politics, philosophy, art, literature, music and countless other things with real people in the real world instead. While drinking real wine and beer, playing real games and doing real jobs. As for communicating with people with diverse social and political backgrounds from all over the world, there are countless forums, blogs and other online resources that allow you to do that without all that tedious mucking about with SL. Or, better still, take a real vacation to a real place (and not just some tourist-filled hellhole) and get to know the locals.

Oh, and when it does come to the desire for a bit of pointless clarting about with computers and similar technology, that's where your PS3, Xbox, Wii, Whup-Ass-Gaming-PC (TM), etc. comes in. I'm pretty sure that Halo, Call of Duty, Tomb Raider, Tenchu Shadow Assassins or Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (not to mention countless others) are probably far more fun than SL. And look better too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Cameron - King Leah

Priceless!

[Winkypop]

I didn't even read the article

I just wanted to use the phrase: SadLife

[jmengate]

Which is worse

Those who play SecondLife or those who spend their time trying to build themselves up by making fun of those who play SecondLife?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Cameron Colley

Cameron Colley wrote: "Personally, I find people in Second Life more open minded and less judgemental than in real life -- meaning conversation is much more wide ranging and stimulating than most in real life. It also gives one the opportunity to communicate people with diverse social and political backgrounds from all over the world."

Well, why not try out some free chat software?

From experience, the more time I spend on computers, the less stimulating real-life conversation with the other half is. It seems to consist of:

"Are you finished with that crap yet?"

"Did you remember to take the bins out?"

Whereas when we sit together and talk, its much more interesting...

[Peter Kay]

virtual vs real : it's all about the money

The problem is obviously that whilst everything else is virtual, the money is real. That's the key downfall of all the SL type environments and all those colossal MMO wastes of time.

Real money=real life issues.

I've yet to see SL as anything more than a waste of time. Most of the people I've spoken to have been more concentrated on SL rather than meeting in real life - which is the point, in my opinion.

There may be people it's worth chatting to, but I've not really found it possible without faffing around.

[Anonymous Coward]

Second Life should be called Sex World

Second class, porn ridden game, not even worth the effort of loading the software. A real life lawsuit, they should have lawyers in the game to handle it, but of course they would all be corrupt playing the game.

[Cameron Colley]

@Adrianww

Then you're lucky -- most people I talk to in Real Life seem more interested in talking about their money problems and Big Brother (C4 TV show).

As for going to other places -- of course I do that, the two are not mutually exclusive -- but what's wrong with doing both?

Of course, Second Life isn't for everyone -- but to dismiss it as a "place for sad people to hang out" pretty much proves that you're closed minded and intollerant.

[Anonymous Coward]

Awesome

Hope this is treated with the contempt it deserves.. I can imagine other online gaming businesses looking at something like this with extreme humour though. Most simply make it a violation of the player's terms and conditions if they purchase services or virtual equipment. They make sure that anything created for the game violates their terms and conditions if it's sold for profit and anything created within the game still remains the ip of the game's creator.

I know Second Life is different and actually encourages people to make money from their software, but if they allow 3rd parties to own the ip of content created for the game they were bound to get into this sort of trouble eventually. Anyone who purchases the game can create anything for it and there is no financially viable way of policing users in the way these companies want.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wankers!

That is all.

I havent time to post sdmartarser comments as im about to climb into my virtual P47 to fly down the virtual Grand Canyon whilst drinking an actual beer.....

....i think its best I get my virtual coat..perhaps someone could flog me one....

[Jack 4]

Here it goes again...

Anytime there's an article about Second life, I can be sure that the actual subject of the article will be completely ignored in the comments, which will instead be packed with posts by people slagging off Second Life.

Personally, I happen to be disabled, and I find logging in in the evening to hang out and chat with friends to be a superior way to spend the evening compared to passively soaking up whatever crap happens to be on TV.

[Sceptical Bastard]

@ Cameron

Ah, a rare beast indeed - a Sadville shill. Cameron, dear boy, you really *do* need to get out more.

Interesting, too, that the story is about sex toys... aren't sex toys mostly used for masturbation?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the point..

...in a virtual world if all of the real world restrictions still apply? Can you be done for assault if you attack someone in game, too?