Sex, Laws, and Internet: When Second Life and Real Life Collide

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The Internet is an fascinating thing: you can, to some degree, live out a whole separate life in here, fully removed from the confines and limitations of the world into which you were born. This is the basic concept behind Second Life. In case you've been living off the grid lately, Second Life is a "virtual world" unleashed on the intertubes back in 2003 by would-be Greek god Philip Rosedale. (UCSD alumni, holla!) It's sort of like The Sims meets an MMORPG -- populated by thousands "playing" in real time, the only quests are to work, go to school, see shows, acquire real estate, make awkward sexual advances at clubs, and spend lots of money. What's more, there are no epic weapon drops at the end of the tunnel. A welcome respite from real life, I suppose, because in Second Life at least you can approach this virtual mirror world as your true mental self (bondage-laden woman with a tiger face) rather than the false body you were born into (49-year-old hardware store clerk with a paunch). Therein lies the draw that has made Second Life one of the most massive and hyped internet applications to date.

The same dynamics endowing Second Life with its rich tapestry of social weirdness have also made the game, as it were, a financial dream. Big business aim to thrive, as your virtual self buys virtual Coke with real money, but far more interesting are the small-time upstart entrepreneurs. Enter: Kevin Alderman. This mild-mannered, middle-aged coding carpenter from Tampa, FL, works day and night building up a small business called Eros LLC, bringing with it an indispensable service to the Second Life community -- the craft of pixelated furniture that animates, with a simple click, your avatar in the act of hot, full-on, graphic (hey-o!) lovin'. But in a world where no one has to know your story, where an internet handle practically becomes an extension of one's own real name, how do you know who to hold accountable when business goes awry? This is the problem facing Alderman now, as he is presented with the odd situation of trying to sue someone he has no concept of in real life.

On paper, it's undeniably straightforward: someone stole Alderman's code for SexGen Platinum, one of his hot love creations, and is now selling the bootlegs illegally. It's a fairly clear-cut case of copyright infringement and intellectual property theft. The catch: Alderman doesn't even know the thief's name. What to do in such a situation? The only logical thing in a Second Life mentality: sue the avatar.

Alderman filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Fla., last month alleging an avatar named "Volkov Catteneo" broke the program's copy protection and sold unauthorized copies.

"We confronted him about it and his basic response was, 'What are you going to do? Sue me?'" Alderman said. "I guess the mentality is that because you're an avatar ... that you are untouchable. The purpose of this suit is not only to protect our income and our product, but also to show, yes, you can be prosecuted and brought to justice."
As my crackerjack legal counsel explained it to me (just before advising me to rent a very fast car with no top), "it would be like you suing me as 'Subrosa,' and not 'Dr. Gonzo*.'" A bizarre concept, to be sure, and certainly one that could only be yet another new and wonderful product of the internet. Catherine Smith, marketing director of Linden Labs (the lab responsible for the online world), states that she's never heard of any real legal dispute between two avatars before; Alderman's lawyer, then, is faced with the apparently unprecedented task of tracking down this "Volkov Catteneo" character in the outside world and serving him (her?) some justice. Luckily there's a bit of a lead, what with the internet leaving a somewhat-traceable digital trail and all.

Taney [Alderman's lawyer] believes he knows who Catteneo is in real life, but is confirming it through subpoenas of records of eBay Inc.'s PayPal payment service as well as chat logs and trade history in "Second Life." He said Linden Lab and PayPal turned over their records, and he is preparing another round of subpoenas.

"We're proceeding carefully," Taney said. "This guy has claimed the information he gave to Linden was bogus. We are looking for ways to cross check and corroborate the information."
Debates over intellectual property theft have been around practically since the Mesozoic era, and the internet, with its relative ease and everyman-an-entrepreneur attitude, just provides one more way to go about it. Some, such as the forward-thinking Portuguese Ministry of Justice, are even planning ahead by building in-game "e-justice" arbitration centers to settle disputes without taking the fight outside, but whether or not such mediation can really be enforced remains to be seen. Still, while justice departments are gearing up for a potential long haul of brand-new avatar criminals, it's definitely a unique situation at the present. If anything, any upcoming trial ought to be interesting.


_DictionaryGirl_, who prefers pretending she's Eddie Van Halen for her virtual kicks, tips her hat toward the incomparable Subrosa for a truly excellent story.

*Real name omitted to protect the innocent!

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/geek/22112/Sex-Laws-and-Internet-When-Second-Life-and-Real-Life-Collide/