WoW

Agreed

...you've got it backwards. According to the filing this about the name "SexGen" being used on knock-off beds this other guy made.

He wouldn't have a case if it was just "someone copied my bed" since Stroker didn't invent the bed or come up with the idea of having sex on one.

From the article:
I thought providing fake ID info to LL was enough to get your account banned.

You are wrong, but I think you are just misunderstanding, either what I have said, or what the filing says. Stroker is claiming that his items were literally copied - not that something similar was created independently. Despite his items having no-copy permissions, the defendant is alleged to have found a way to make copies, and then also to have produced derivative works based on these items.

That is why this is primarily a copyright infringement case and not primarily a case about trademark or trade dress infringement.

You can read the filing here:

http://secondlife.reuters.com/media/SDOC1202.pdf

It is. Stroker is one of the most creative and talented builders in Second Life.

Section 2: Defendant(blah blah blah) has been making and selling, and continues to make and sell numerous unauthorized copies of Eros's virtual products within Second Life using EROS'S TRADEMARK IN VIOLATION OF THE LANHAM ACT and the Copyright Act.

Section 26: Beginning no later than in or about April, 2007, defendant has made and sold, using the Mark, numerous unauthorized copies of the Items, and derivative works pased on the Items, within Second Life in interstate commerce to Second Life users in locations such as Georgia, West Virginia and Great Britain. IN connection with the sales of the unauthorized copies of the Items, Defendant has misrepresented the copies as authorized and legitimate copies of the Items created by Eros, resulting in actual consumer confusion regarding the origin of the copies.

Looks like we were both right...although I doubt they'd win on the copyright side of things.

One thing that's interesting, though, is this...

Section 19: On or about June 11, 2007, Eros filed an application to obtain federal trademark registration, for the Mark with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Section 23: On or about June 25, 2007, Eros filed applications for copyright registrations for Item 1 and Item 2 with the US Copyright Office.

I wonder if the knock-off guy is going to get out of it because the items weren't copywritten or trademarked until after the fact? What about the fact that they haven't actually GOTTEN their TM and copyright applications accepted yet?

Things that make you say "who cares?"

He invented the bed? He invented having sex on one? He was the first guy to make a sex bed in SL?

I'm not debating his creative abilities, just that this issue is over something that wasn't creative.

Though sex certainly isn't my forte (except for RL, ahem ahem!), it's nice to know that we really DO have a legal leg to stand on regarding copyright. Of course, just like RL, it's only there if you're willing to pay for it. But it's a consumer world out there, alas.

The fact that the mark was copied is secondary. This is a copyright infringement suit, not a trademark infringement suit.

And I can honestly say, I have no idea what you even mean by that.

Except not really. Trademark is actually mentioned before copyright each time they are both mentioned.

I typed up those sections verbatim from the link you gave me...which is what I read when I first read about this thing.

It's okay...you can be half wrong about something and your friends will still like you!

/me is not surprised.

i remember someone coming into the forums about two weeks ago asking if they should worry about this ..they had gotten an email from strokerz warning them to not sell thier beds..*wonders if thats the guy*

It's all perfectly normal.
Rip someone off and if they have the resources and/or anger, they come after you.
Subpoenas for John Doe ID happen a lot. This particular one has been signalled for months.
Nothing to see here, move along please.


Go Stroker!! Nail the perp!

This is the same great guy that tried to bully other SLers into not making poseballs because he said he owned the copyright to them.

Snort.

There were people using prims and crude animations in beta (no not Eggy - at least not that he knows of ), before Stroker ever joined SL.

May be a good guy, but he's got a very healthy ego as well.

Coffee anyone........
If they are dealing with stealing great!

Oh, yay...another snoozefest from Blizzard...

I agree, the bragging rights alone could make it worthwhile for the attorneys!

I don't understand. SL has permissions. Items cannot be copied if the owner doesn't permit. So, isn't it up to the plaintiff to prove that the defendant actually used some secret technology to copy his non-copyable items? If so, have other merchants also come out of the closet? If I could rip people off, I certainly wouldn't be doing it to one person.

I mean...come on...This is a bed controlled by a script. No matter how talented you (or anybody else thinks you are), ultimately someone else will figure out how something was made and make their own version. Isn't that how so many of us start out in programming and 3D modeling?

I'm just asking....

Pity people can't be adult enough to solve their own problems or take responsibility for their own lives Instead of resorting to lawyers.

"Q: What do you call 500 lawyers buried up to thier shoulders in manure?
A: A critical shortage of manure"
~Folk Wisdom, Author Unknown~

Angel.

I get a bad taste in my mouth any time I think about MMORPGs. SL saved me from those, as you call, snoozefests.

Did you actually read the first page? Look, nobody is denying the man's trademark was violated - the entire product was copied, including the mark. My point to Collette was simply that this case is about more than stealing somebody's logo. I think you are missing the point of the case, and the point of my comment. I have no idea why you jumped in, and told me I have something backward.

I think you may like arguing for the sake of arguing. I feel silly for taking the bait

Got your point, Persephone , thanks

Give Stroker his day in court to prove it. You can't expect it to be proven in the complaint.

Regardless, it's been explicitly stated that the reproductions are the result of an exploit. It's not a matter of squashing competing beds like Neva Naughty - it's for *exact* replicas of his beds. IIRC, LL fixed a scripting bug recently that probably was the source of this exploit - where no mod scripts could be modded by people you gave mod rights to! I think this was fixed a month or two ago, but the damage is certainly done.

Hi everyone,

It is my understanding it is not the fact that the beds are copied that matters but rather how simillar the copy is.

If the copies were created painstakenly by observing the original and making a bed that worked in a very simillar manner using the standard tools available including different but alike scripting, then that *may* not be copyright violation and may infact be classed as a recreation inspired by the original that has simillar functionality and simillar look and feel of the original.

However if the original work was very close to being exact or exactly copied (including the creator ID, scripting, etc.) using an exploit of some kind then I believe it indeed would be a copyright violation.

I am not making any statements about the morality of the actions by the people involved, just my opinion that the court will judge this on how close to the original the copy is and the methods used to perform the copy.

However IANAL so YMMV

Regards
Nathan