Eros Law Suit Settled over Second Life

The Eros law suit has been settled, which will bring genitalia and Second Life into the same sentence again. The Eros law suit was considered a landmark, and while what was being stolen fuels discussion of “what the heck do they DO in there” it had deeper implications because it de facto showed that all these digital bits and pieces in SL have real value. Secondly, it brought up issues about what rights content creators have in Second Life, and how to deal with anonymity. If another steals my work but is hidden behind an anonymous avatar, how do I sue them….leading to subpoenas of Linden Labs and detectives hot on the trail of domain addresses.

I’m sure this was covered elsewhere, but a friend forwarded a link to WFTV which reported:
A federal judge accepted the settlement Thursday of a lawsuit filed last year against a Texas man accused of stealing sex toys developed for the online world, “Second Life.”

According to the settlement, Robert Leatherwood agreed not to copy, display or distribute any items sold by Eros LLC, a Tampa Bay-area company that creates virtual sex scripts in the “Second Life” universe. Leatherwood must also disclose the e-mail addresses of anyone he knows had access to his “Second Life” persona, known as “Volkov Catteneo.” The settlement does not involve money or any admission of wrongdoing, court documents show.

Possibly a disappointing result for Eros. But after all, the domain trail led back to some kid living with his grandmother.

Reached at his grandmother’s home in North Richland Hills, Texas, Leatherwood acknowledged he sold Eros products, but said the whole case had been overblown.

“I did it in private,” he said. “I wasn’t out to do a huge market thing. I was doing it for a little bit of money.” Leatherwood said he agreed to settle the case because he is 19 and didn’t have money for an attorney. He said he stopped selling Eros products online a year ago, and he rarely uses “Second Life” anymore. He said the whole case was “ridiculous,” and likely cost Alderman thousands of dollars. He also said he thought it would be hard to hold him liable. “He had no evidence or proof of anything I did,” Leatherwood said. Taney said Alderman is “moving on.” He scoffed at Leatherwood’s contention that there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue the case, noting that he had previously publicly denied he sold Eros items. “Out of a nation of 300 million people, we tracked the kid down to his living room in North Richland Hills, Texas,” Taney said.