MIAMI - An adult novelty vendor operating in the online virtual world Second Life has filed a real-life lawsuit against a New York man, claiming he stole the company's intellectual property.
Thomas Simon, 36, allegedly lurked in the virtual world via an avatar named "Rase Kenzo" and lifted everything from shoes to clothes to sex from the Second Life shop Strokerz Toyz.
"It's stealing," claimed Kevin Alderman, a Florida man who operates Strokerz Toyz. His Second Life alter ego is "Stroker Serpentine."
Alderman's company makes a variety of furniture and toy items that include computer codes to facilitate sex between avatars. He claimed that "a multitude of products" were copied, including his best-selling SexGen bed, a digital bed with built-in sex-position animations. It is the first in-world sex bed.
According to technology attorney Raymond Van Dyke, in a world as large as Second Life has become, crime is to be expected.
Second Life is an online virtual world with its own economy.
Millions of registered users create their own avatars and lead virtual lives on
the site, including buying and selling products.
Second Life creator Linden Lab declined to comment on the case, since it is not
directly involved.
Van Dyke said Second Life's copyright and trademark laws need to be resolved.
"Punching through the veil of the computer to go after avatars is the brave new world of cyberlaw," he said.
Pictured: "Stroker Serpantine"
