Real Sex Toy Lawsuit in Virtual World Settled

When you talk to people who spend a lot of time developing virtual worlds or just hanging out in them, they talk about the inevitable merging of virtual and real world experience. Usually they talk about it in glowing, Utopian terms. The blurring of lines between virtual and real worlds may be inevitable, but a lawsuit settled last week in federal court is a reminder that the platform through which we experience life (be it real or virtual) may not have much of an influence on how we behave.

The suit, initiated by Kevin Alderman, the owner of Eros LLC, a company that develops sexual software applications for use by avatars in Second Life, was ostensibly brought against an avatar in Second Life named Volkov Catteneo, but in the real life court named Robert Leatherwood as the defendant. Alderman claimed that Leatherwood copied his creations and sold them in Second Life as his own. Alderman and his lawyer went to great lengths to discover the identity of the real person behind the Volkov avatar and successful tracked him down. According to news reports the suit represents the first time a company has sued for copyright infringement in a virtual world.

The settlement didn’t contain any financial compensation, but both Alderman and his lawyer are pleased with the outcome. Personally I appreciate Alderman’s position and think its great that he stood up for what he believed was right and to protect his hard work. I find it troubling that many of the comments I’ve read regarding this suit minimize its importance because the content is sexual in nature.

But I also wonder if this suit isn’t an early indication that once the lines between virtual and real worlds blur, we’ll be left with the worst of both. Can a virtual sub-prime mortgage crisis be far behind?

Read more - Tampa Bay Online: Virtual Sex Toy Suit Settled

_{Image used with permission from Stroker Serpentine/Eros LLC}