Second Life Lawsuit Heads to Federal Court 201
Conlaw writes "A former plumbing contractor who has made a new career selling virtual cyber sex toys in the virtual world of Second Life, has now brought suit against another player who is allegedly copying and selling a device called the Sex Gen. The plaintiff, whose avatar is known as 'Stroker Serpentine,' is seeking the real name of the copycat entrepreneur. The reporter describing the lawsuit included commentary from a cyber law professor whose university maintains a virtual Supreme Court in the Second Life world."
Re:USA laws don't apply there (Score:5, Insightful)
What really irks me is people who try and make the case that the internet is its own reality.
copyright gone awry (Score:5, Insightful)
He's basically talking about animation files. Now, if people literally copy the bits in his animation files, that would be a copyright violation; he'd have a case. But SL makes it pretty hard to do that, and that doesn't sound like what he is complaining about.
Sounds like he is complaining about that people create animations that are "like" his, not merely his. But that basically means that he claims a copyright on the missionary position and that's not right. Copyright doesn't protect ideas, it only protects specific expressions of those ideas. And generic, common expressions aren't copyrightable either, and it seems like the missionary position is pretty generic and common.
Re:copyright gone awry (Score:1, Insightful)
Let's instead liken this to fan fiction vs. commercial fiction. The original producer of the SL sex device wrote a series of novels, developed characters, etc. in a coherent world and sells them. Someone else comes along and without permission, begins to write other novels using the same characters, world and stories and sell them in competition with the original author. That is, clearly, not permissible.
Re:Remember when games were just for fun? (Score:2, Insightful)
Just What We Need More Of..... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Lawsuits.
2. Taxes.
3. Life
So what does the New World have?
1. Virtual Lawsuits.
2. Virtual Taxes.
3. Virtual Life.
Kinda makes you wonder if people are really as stupid and detached from reality as they act.....
The important thing here... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:copyright gone awry (Score:3, Insightful)
The ability to create avatar animations is built into the system. Not only is it obvious, it's documented and exists there specifically for this purpose, with the expectation that users create, distribute, and improve life-like animations.
Copyright infringement happens when you create a derivative work from an original as well, importing many characteristics of the original.
That sentence is wrong. Yes, copyright infringement occurs when you create a derivative work, but "importing characteristics of the original" is not necessarily "creating a derivative work".
Let's instead liken this to fan fiction vs. commercial fiction. The original producer of the SL sex device wrote a series of novels, developed characters, etc. in a coherent world and sells them. Someone else comes along and without permission, begins to write other novels using the same characters, world and stories and sell them in competition with the original author. That is, clearly, not permissible.
But that analogy is wrong: there is nothing particularly creative, novel, or distinctive about his animations; he is simply trying to create life-like motions. The proper analogy would be that someone writes a boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl novel in ebook format, and then claims that all future such novels violate his copyright--clearly unreasonable.
Furthermore, prohibitions against fan fiction are usually not based on copyright but trademarks (specifically, trademarks on the names of characters and places).
Don't See Anything Wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
This is like HP complaining that Lexmark copied their work/idea about selling printers and expensive inkjet cartridges.
Someone needs to go out a get a third life.
Re:USA laws don't apply there (Score:3, Insightful)
Not a good idea to support real-world laws to a digital world.
Re:USA laws don't apply there (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Virtual (Score:3, Insightful)
Look, as much as I hate taxes, if there's anything I hate more there's an unevenly applied tax. Particularly in SL where it sounds like you're actually coding new items and you get paid in a currency that's officially convertable to USD, is there any reason this should be any different than if I hire a US developer to some coding work for me, payable in NOK? If so, I'm going to build a virtual world with virtual x86 machines where people work on virtual software, and I don't need to pay taxes. Then I'll copy-paste the software out in the real world and sell it. Think the IRS will buy that?
Re:Secondlife Copyright Lawsuit (Score:2, Insightful)
Look, here's how it goes. If your business model is based on the assumption that people can't make exact digital duplicates of your products, then you are fucked. No ifs, no buts, it is a bad business model. And for a business like that, profitability is a very, very temporary state. Using realworld legal action to try and protect a business model like this is the epitome of stupid. You made some money, the flaws in your plan were exposed and now you're trying to get a court to fix it for you. Businesses fail all the time, your's is nothing special (except in humour terms).
I can only assume that you don't realise this because your world view has been distorted by spending too much time in Second Life. This can easily be fixed. Simply go to the nearest (real) bar and explain to each patron in turn what Second Life is. Then explain what Dildonics is. You may as well also mention Furries and Yiffing, because lets face it they probably feature heavily amongst your customers. Finally, round it all off by telling them all about your business and how you're actually going to a real court to sue an unknown person who is copying your digital creations. Let us know how many people didn't laugh at you.
personally.... (Score:2, Insightful)
ROFLOL