Eros LLC, Shannon Grei form class action against Linden Lab for infringement
by Tateru Nino 
Sep 16th 2009 at 9:00AM
Filed under: News items, Second Life, Legal, Virtual worlds
Eros LLC, and graphic designer Shannon Grei (Munchflower Zaius) have filed a class-action lawsuit against Linden Research Inc, more commonly known as Linden Lab, developers and operators of popular virtual environment Second Life, on behalf of themselves and of copyright/trademark holders and Second Life content creators.
Filed in the Court of the Northern District of California yesterday, the complaint defines four groups of class action and alleges: four counts of trademark infringement (two direct, one contributory, and one vicarious), four counts of copyright infringement (two direct, one contributory, and one vicarious), a breach of California Business Professional Codes §§ 17200 and 17500, one of Intentional Interference with Economic Relations, and one of Negligent Interference with Economic Relations.
The complaint seeks damages, fines under the Lanham act, treble damages (for willfulness), expenses, injunctive relief and declaratory relief.
Kevin Alderman (known in Second Life as Stroker Serpentine), CEO of Eros LLC told us, "First and foremost this is a class action application. As a class we represent evident copyright and trademark infringement. Our intent is not to take down Second Life, nor create a division amongst the community. It is apparent to many of us that our concerns have gone largely ignored. Copybot, Builderbot, CryoLife et al are but symptoms of an ambivalent approach towards IP theft on behalf of Linden Lab. For years we have been promised better tools, more metadata, sticky licenses, aggressive response, verification, watermarks ... ad nauseum. Seven years later and all we are given is a 'Roadmap'." [We covered that roadmap here on Massively last month]
"The pirates know full well how to hedge their bets and leverage the DMCA in their favor," said Alderman, "We are virtually defenseless unless we have the financial means to pursue expensive litigation. We do not expect miracles. We understand the nature of our chosen environment. Unfortunately, there is little to no deterrence under the current regime."
The complaint itself outlines the basics of Second Life and it's economic, currency and asset system for the court, and then goes on to describe how infringers of copyright use the DMCA as both a shield and a weapon against content-creators.
Additionally, the complaint asserts that Linden Lab is both careless (damaging original content) and tardy (late to act or taking no action) in response to DMCA notifications.
Accordingly, Linden Lab has made trademark and copyright infringement free and easy, turning the Second Life community into a vast virtual flea market in which users peddle knockoffs and pirated copies of IP-protected products and services. Despite Linden Lab's actual knowledge of such widespread activity, it has taken no substantive action to prevent, limit, or prohibit such widespread infringement.
...
Linden Lab directly derives substantial financial benefits from this scheme, including by earning revenue from licensing the virtual real estate used to offer and sell, imposing of a fee for the upload of infringing works, goods or services by infringers, and charging promotional and advertising fees. Linden Lab also retains a portion of the proceeds of nearly every sale associated with the infringed trademarks and copyrights by infringers, and from the overall increase in user traffic and commercial value of its business and property arising from the "draw" of infringing copyrighted and trademarked intellectual property of others.
Further, Linden Lab has continued to willfully infringe Plaintiffs' rights even after Plaintiffs notified them that its use of Plaintiffs' trademarked goods and services and copyrighted materials violates Plaintiffs' rights under copyright and trademark law.
The complaint goes on to detail infringements against both Eros LLC and Grei's intellectual property, and to allege that Linden Lab willfully profited and intentionally either contributed or failed to act when made aware of the infringements.
The full complaint document is available in PDF format (430KB).
We contacted Linden Lab yesterday, who declined to comment on the case.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Phoenix Psaltery said on 9:29AM 9-16-2009
I should like to point out that it's not a class action suit, but rather the filing requests class action status, which the court will have to decide on.
P2
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Vandell [XBL: Keazra] said on 10:05AM 9-16-2009
Welp, looks like Second Life may end up going the way of YouTube - anything remotely IP infringing will get swiped away.
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Zonja Capalini said on 10:09AM 9-16-2009
"Copybot, Builderbot, CryoLife et al"? Demagogical. Builderbot has never been released to the public, to my knowledge. I don't see how can it be a symptom of anything.
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Dude said on 10:32AM 9-16-2009
Sour grapes. They'll sue for copy cat air breathing if they can.
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Sorcefire said on 11:11AM 9-16-2009
So...are people just blind or very naive about the internet? Selling any sort of copyrighted material in a virtual world and then suing the company for not enforcing their copyrights? Most likely they sought to make a substantial revenue in an unregulated environment and when others copied them they started freaking out.
Guess it shows that, especially in America, people will take any risk to make money and then cry when no one is there to protect them from the ramifications of their own risks.
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Jumpman Lane said on 11:15AM 9-19-2009
quote: Sorcefire said on 11:11AM 9-16-2009
"So...are people just blind or very naive about the internet? Selling any sort of copyrighted material in a virtual world and then suing the company for not enforcing their copyrights? Most likely they sought to make a substantial revenue in an unregulated environment and when others copied them they started freaking out.
Guess it shows that, especially in America, people will take any risk to make money and then cry when no one is there to protect them from the ramifications of their own risks."
spot on. Stroker's minions Cheergirl Allen and Chelsea malibu spent allspring and summer stealing Redgrave Skins and passing them all around the grid and the Eros Empire. That is a known fact. So this whole sactimonius cloak of protecting the rights of content creators everywhere, though natty has a few holes in it!
Cheergirl Allen is the head of the Bimbo Cheerleaders, whose trademarks Eros owns. The Bimbo Ranch was the centerpiece of SexGen Isle's Vegas sim. Ol' Stroke built the Ranch for Cheergirl personally. Chelsea Malibu ran the now defunct Mountainmeister LLC whic managed sims for the reallife Jenna Jameson last year.
Doubledown Tandino said on 11:19AM 9-16-2009
Massively big balls!
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TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 1:02PM 9-16-2009
technicly speaking, is there anything LL could've done to prevent the malicious usage of tools like the original Copybot and the replication facilities on Cryolife? If somthing can be displayed on the screen or heard thru the speakers it can be copied
Though regarding their reactions when they receive a DMCA takedown notice thing, I think somtimes they react too fast (like that time when someone was falsely accused and had their whole store and inventory taken away, and when things were returned to them the permissions were all fucked up)
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SUMB44 said on 4:27PM 9-16-2009
If I were LL, I'd consider the possibility of losing the case, then the potential cost of losing, then shut down the servers.
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Jay said on 6:18PM 9-16-2009
I hope that Stroker gets his class action and wins, the Lab have been screwing people over for too long. The assets you create in SL are not protected and the Lab have done nothing to enforce that. Maybe with class action status every little content creator who has ever been ripped off with the complicity of the lab might get a little justice.
Sure you can't stop someone taking a copy of an object but there are definitely technical measures that could be put in place to detect/fingerprint an import - as an example look at an object being created and watch for a flood, looking at client signatures, using installation keys to ensure only approved clients are used heck anything really.
Then, there are the two VERY long standing and valid complaints by the content creators and the residents, LL never take down when they should, but when they do (very very rarely) they screw it up.
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TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 10:19PM 9-16-2009
any copy-prevention technique will only make things a bit more annoying, but won't get in the way of people who really want to copy stuff for long, and after them, the scriptkiddies (off SL meaning) will come and just mess around like there was nothing in the way
There isn't a good solution for the copy-prevention puzzle, proper laws and enforcement are the only means that might produce some result (but if it's not done right, it will backfire, people will get pissed and manage to make it impossible to get all but the most stupid of the copiers)
Jay said on 3:28AM 9-17-2009
Ah but I didn't say copy prevention, I said copy detection. Some technological detection method that detects the objects being imported and raises a flag in the background for the labs to look at, and ban the account/ip.
And that MUST go hand-in-hand with better and cleaner IP protection through real world methods like America's DMCA... but done so we don't see a repeat of the script borking issues last year.
The Lab can 110% do something if they wanted to but they don't... lazy, lax or understaffed? Who knows... but it is what this class action will target.
TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 12:35AM 9-18-2009
Hm, I see.
Well, seeing how well they are "detecting" adults and minors, I would rather they didn't made any automated way of deleting assets or accusing people...
Alicia Stella said on 11:29PM 9-16-2009
I give away freebie full perm scripts and objects.
Someone gets them free from Xstreet or my store.
Someone makes the items into entirely new objects and links a prim created by me last, leaving me listed as the "Creator" for the entire thing. They use my full perm scripts and erase existing code, adding their own.
They sell this new item in SL and on Xstreet claiming it to be from Alicia Stella, a name I have spent years and thousands of RL dollars promoting. Or they send the item out to thousands for free as a "Gift from Alicia Stella" and is passed around forever.
LL is alerted of this and has clear records of all activity and can clearly see the multiple violations.
LL does nothing about it, ever.
Damage is done constantly. My name is dragged through the mud.
And it continues forever.
Content created in SL needs a watermark or timestamp; a digital record of when the object has been edited or created and by whom. And a database of content creators and merchants RL info should be kept so I can take the RL legal actions needed to rectify the situation.
This is one of a billion possible scenarios in the current climate and why SOME type of new regulation is needed and why LL continues to promise it. LL agrees*, they've just been too slow to act.
*http://www.massively.com/2009/08/05/a-second-life-roadmap-content-management-intellectual-property/
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Rifkin Habsburg said on 1:25AM 9-17-2009
While I sympathise with those who have problems protecting their intellectual property, I have some concerns over this action. My complete argument is a bit too long for the comments here, so I've posted it to my blog, http://blog.playprocyon.com/2009/09/stroker-sues-linden-lab.html
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