Bootlegged Virtual Sex Toys Get Second Life Sued
Yep. If Second Life’s involved, how could sex toys not also be involved? A manufacturer of, uh, intimacy aids has filed a lawsuit alleging that users bootleg, with impunity, the virtual sex toy brand it also sells in Second Life.
Eros LLC of Florida, which produces the popular (or so I am told, anyway) SexGen line took Linden Lab to federal court this week, on a claim that the Second Life operator refuses to take action against users who custom-rig their own sex machines (more or less, they’re code that facilitate boinking animations) and then slap the SexGen brand on ‘em.
Sounds funny, but microtransactions are no joke. Some $US600 million in in-world sales are expected this year, with Linden Lab taking a cut of that. It gets a cut of anything that changes hands for virtual buxx, black market goods or no. And on top of this, Eros does maintain an in-world store, so the virtual ripoff is very real to them.
Eros successfully sued some black marketeers two years ago; this suit represents an escalation. They seek class action status for other merchants who are getting bootleged. Their allegations will also challenge the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects Web sites from legal action if they’re responsive to rights holders’ takedown notices. All of this because people are selling counterfeit f–k coffins.
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Last I looked, which was admittedly a while ago, Linden Lab doesn’t take a cut of those sales. From land tax yes, from selling Linden dollars to residents yes, but not from player to player transactions.