Linden, PayPal subpoenaed in ‘John Doe’ case
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, July 10 (Reuters) - Linden Lab confirmed on Tuesday it has been served with a subpoena seeking information about an avatar’s real-world identity as part of a copyright infringement lawsuit.
PayPal also received a subpoena seeking information about a user’s account, a spokesman for the online payment company told Reuters.
Eros LLC, the adult-products company owned by Kevin Alderman (Second Life: Stroker Serpentine) has sued avatar Volkov Catteneo. Alderman alleges that Catteneo violated the copyright of Eros’ “SexGen bed,” a piece of virtual furniture embedded with over 150 sex animations.
Because Alderman does not know Catteneo’s real-world name, Eros filed suit in federal court against “John Doe” and is seeking information about Catteneo’s identity from Linden Lab and PayPal.
Subpoenas were issued to both companies on Friday, said Frank Taney, lawyer for Alderman. Linden Lab and PayPal each acknowledged receipt of the subpoenas but declined further comment.
The Linden Lab subpoena requests “documents sufficient to show the entirety of identifying information provided by Defendant to Linden,” according to court papers obtained by Reuters. Alderman is also seeking any alternate accounts, commercial transactions, chat histories, Lindex activity, Internet protocol addresses, and credit card information associated with Catteneo.
Linden Lab and PayPal have until July 20 to either produce the requested information or mount a legal challenge.
In a Second Life interview with Reuters, Catteneo remained defiant. “[Linden Lab] and PayPal won’t be able to get anything for Stroker,” he said.
