Volkov Catteneo: Rollback exploit plugged by LL

By Eric Reuters

Volkov Catteneo, the Second Life avatar at the center of last year’s SexGen copyright infringement lawsuit, told Reuters in a Second Life interview that the technique used to make copies of virtual objects has been blocked by Linden Lab.

Catteneo and his accomplices devised a means to make perfect copies of Second Life objects by deliberately crashing sims. The Catteneo avatar made and sold 50 copies of Kevin Alderman’s (Second Life: Stroker Serpentine) SexGen bed, prompting Alderman to sue in U.S. federal court.

Catteneo threatened revenge on Alderman by distributing copies of the SexGen bed throughout Second Life for free. The plan never materialized. “The old tools I had friends using broke, or were nerfed by LL,” Catteneo said.

After a protracted search, Alderman named Robert Leatherwood of Texas, 19, as Volkov Catteneo. The real-life Leatherwood ignored court papers identifying him as the avatar, resulting in a default judgment for Alderman. The person running the Volkov Catteneo account continues to deny he (or she) is Leatherwood.