August 6, 2007 by Nobody Fugazi
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VirtuallyBlind.com is reporting that Linden Lab is complying with Eros LLC’s subpoena seeking the identity of a John Doe defendant so far identified only as his Second Life avatar, ‘Volkov Catteneo.’
People should pay attention to this, because this is a piercing of the 'Virtual World Veil' for identity.
The case itself - I don't know; I don't think the initial filing demonstrated that there was a copy being sold - just that the name and likeness was being used that I could tell. The legal filing didn't indicate much, but I guess they're just researching as they go along. That the subpoena being honored, though is interesting.
I'm still waiting for the demonstration for the copyright violation claim to be proven. The trademark was only applied for after the alleged use of name and likeness began according to the filing... I dunno. It seemed compelling enough to someone to have gotten this far.
Personally, I don't think that this case will go very far until they can demonstrate that the beds being sold were in fact copies. If they are truly copies, then there is an exploit of the SecondLife permissions systems... And then there is the question of what will happen if Volkov Cattaneo lives outside of the United States.
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Missed this
Related on Virtual Blind: Proposal to Make Suing Anonymous Avatars Harder points to this article.
Of course, privacy laws vary around the world. ;-)
Does it bother anyone else
Does it bother anyone else that Linden Lab apparently (allegedly didn't fight the subpoena) handed over chat logs, transaction histories, personally identifying information on a mere CLAIM by another resident? It didn't seek to fight, for example to narrow the subpoena only to information that might actually be relevant to the claim?
Sad day.
yeah it bothers me
It bothers me that now my ip and mac addresses have been subpeona'd
over this case and i have never even been on 2nd life. My nephew who shares my isp through a router uses the name volkov in some other game he plays(not 2nd life), so now my toes have been stomped on and i feel kinda violated.
Surprised
I was a little surprised that they didn't put up some fight just for the optics, but it is an uphill battle to quash a well-formed subpoena. It seems like the kind of thing they could have scored easy points with their users over though, so yeah, I'm a little surprised. Especially re chat logs, which are something I would think a lot of users would expect to be kept private. (Note: I have no idea if they actually gave any of this stuff either, all I really do know is that they let the deadline to oppose it go by. They may have worked out a deal with plaintiffs' counsel in terms of what was produced).
But is it admissible?
I just thought of this, it's late/early, and maybe I'm on the wrong track - but -
If I were the defendant, I'd be pointing to inventory losses in world, etc., and saying that server logs from Linden Lab are undependable.
I'm not a lawyer... but I have to ask just how much credence Linden Lab logs will have in a Court of Law.