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Hotly-anticipated PC titles Spore and Mass Effect will be among the first wave of PC games from EA to employ a controversial form of copy protection.

Techdirt reports that publisher Electronic Arts will use SecuROM protection, a scheme that has caused technical problems with some past titles. From the Techdirt story:

This new version is causing controversy due to an online verification system connected to its CD key. The system requires a connection to the internet during installation… After this the game will try to re-check the CD key every 5-10 days… If the game can’t verify the key… it will continue to try for a further 10 days, after which it will stop working… The protection will also only allow the game to be installed three times.

So what’s the beef? According to Techdirt:

A lot of gamers consider this intrusive and inconvenient, and that the publishers are effectively assuming their customers are pirates… Other concerns have been raised over users who don’t play with machines permanently connected to the internet… or how the system will work in regards to resale.

These potential problems combined with SecuROM’s past have made some call for a boycott of the titles and others to declare an intention to pirate the game out of spite.

Cnet’s Daniel Terdiman weighs in on the brewing controversy:

Systems like this are never going to be winners for companies like EA. For every copy of one of its games that it successfully keeps from being illegally copied, it’s going to lose a good customer who’s beyond annoyed at the way the system works and the way they feel they’re being treated.

To be sure, software companies feel they have to fight tooth and nail to avoid being robbed… [but] as the Sony rootkit scandal and other DRM PR nightmares have shown, users do not want to be controlled in this way. And they vote with their wallets.

The Raw Story has a lengthy expose on Tony Krvaric, head of San Diego’s GOP committee.

According to the report, the 37-year-old Krvaric, a naturalized US citizen who was born in Sweden, was the co-founder of Fairlight, a  warez group formed in 1987. From Raw Story:

Fairlight… evolved into an international video and software piracy group that law enforcement authorities say is among the world’s largest such crime rings.

After co-founding Fairlight in Sweden, Krvaric established U.S. operations for the organization, including an arm headquartered in Southern California—a major center for the computer and video game industry.

Krvaric, known in the cracking community as “Strider,” got his start pirating games for the Commodore 64, but apparently left Fairlight in 1992. In 2004, the ring was taken down following an international investigation which resulted in the arrest of 120 people. Krvaric was not among them, although another group member alleged that he remained involved.

Although Krvaric would not respond to The Raw Story’s request for comment, he discounted the allegations in an e-mail to fellow Repubicans:

Apparently there’s a hit piece floating around on me, “exposing” my wild high school, teenage years where I was in a computer club where we swapped Commodore 64 games (similar to how kids swap mp3 music files these days). This was in the 80’s, on a computer that’s long since defunct!

…I don’t know who is spreading this, but just wanted to let you know what’s going on out there. Likely it’s someone who wants us to take our eye off the ball in 2008, be it the democrats, labor or someone else. Either way, we’re not going to let them get away with it.

Via: Laws of Play

In a recent column for GameDaily, Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) fretted about End User License Agreements (EULAs), that mysterious legalese to which game software users are required to agree before enjoying the product for which they’ve just plunked down $39.99 or more.

Attorney and Law of the Game blogger Mark Methenitis picks up the EULA theme in his latest column for Joystiq:

Copyright law and its application to new media has lagged well behind the curve of practicality… technology has now pushed the envelope to the point that it is generally impractical, if not nearly impossible to impose the centuries old concept of ‘copyright’ that originated with the printing press…

That’s not to say the powers that be haven’t tried to adapt copyright to new media. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) was the last train wreck of an attempt to do just that… the problem with a lot of legislation is that the law is primarily drafted by legislators who, to be quite honest, know next to nothing about what they’re trying to legislate, while being prodded by highly paid lobbyists who, generally, represent the side with the most money…

With regard to games, Hal [Halpin] has the right first step in mind: there needs to be some sort of large scale discussion about the issue amongst the industry people…

This is an opportunity for the game industry to be proactive and take the lead in dealing with the EULA. Clearly, the license cannot go away altogether, but it can certainly receive a facelift that would be beneficial to both the producer and the consumer.

Full Disclosure Dept: The Entertainment Consumers Association is the parent company of GamePolitics.

You may recall that, about a year ago, World of Warcraft publisher Blizzard sued computer whiz Michael Donnelly, creator of a popular WoW botting program known as Glider.

Last week, both sides filed new motions in U.S. District Court for summary judgment, essentially seeking to have themselves declared victorious without having to go through a trial.

We note that in its motion, Blizzard claims that Donnelly sold $2.8 million worth of Glider. That’s a lot of bots. For the legal-minded, here is Blizzard’s motion and here is Donnelly’s.

Brad Wardell of Stardock (Sins of a Solar Empire) goes off the game industry reservation a bit in a refreshing rant on piracy and PC gaming.

Writing for his Opinionated techie blog, Wardell says that bad games and excessive hardware requirements - not piracy - are the primary villains in poor sales of PC titles:

Recently there has been a lot of talk about how piracy affects PC gaming. And if you listen to game developers, it apparently is a foregone conclusion - if a high quality PC game doesn’t sell as many copies as it should, it must be because of piracy.

Now, I don’t like piracy at all. It really bugs me when I see my game up on some torrent site.. And piracy certainly does cost sales.  But arguing that piracy is the primary factor in lower sales of well made games? I don’t think so.

According to Wardell, most PC developers tend to create games not for the largest base of potential users, but for the hardcore crowd, the folks with $600 GPU’s sitting inside their PC cases. Okay, I’ll cop to being one of those… But Wardell makes sense when he writes:

PC game developers seem to focus more on the “cool” factor. What game can they make that will get them glory with the game magazines and gaming websites and hard core gamers? These days, it seems like game developers want to be like rock stars more than businessmen… 

Anyone who keeps track of how many PCs the “Gamer PC” vendors sell each year could tell you that it’s insane to develop a game explicitly for hard core gamers.  Insane.  I think people would be shocked to find out how few hard core gamers there really are out there…

So why are companies making games that require them to sell to 15% of a given market to be profitable? In what other market do companies do that?

While Wardell’s games don’t include CD-based copy protection, he’s certainly not advocating piracy:

The reason why we don’t put copy protection on our games isn’t because we’re nice guys. We do it because the people who actually buy games don’t like to mess with it… We know our customers could pirate our games if they want but choose to support our efforts. So we return the favor - we make the games they want and deliver them how they want it. This is also known as operating like every other industry outside the PC game industry.

When Sins [of a Solar Empire] popped up as the #1 best selling game at retail a couple weeks ago, a game that has no copy protect whatsoever, that should tell you that piracy is not the primary issue.

The Entertainment Software Association reports via press release that Mexican law enforcement authorities recently staged a crackdown on video game bootlegging operations in Mexico City.

Working with ESA representatives, more than 500 Mexican police coordinated raids on four game duplication facilities and three storage locations. The haul of contraband was impressive: 290 DVD/CD burners, 28,800 bootleg game copies and over 900,000 video game cover inserts. Said Ric Hirsch, the ESA’s senior vice president for Intellectual Property Enforcement:

Mexico is an important market for ESA members due to the enormous popularity of entertainment software. Unfortunately, Mexico also has an alarmingly high rate of game software piracy that by our estimates reaches 88%. We are very grateful for the efforts of [the Mexican authorities] in attacking the sources of pirate video games circulating in Mexico City markets, as such enforcement actions are the best way to reduce high levels of game piracy.

The raids, which followed months of investigation by the ESA, took place in Mexico City’s Tepito market area, which, according to the ESA, is “one of the most popular shopping areas in Mexico City and is a local center of black market activity.”

Could it happen here?

AFP reports that Japanese Internet Service Providers will sever the Internet connection of those who illegally download files. It is said to be one of the strictest online piracy measures anywhere.

And the video game biz is right in the middle of it. From the AFP story:

Faced with mounting complaints from the music, movie and video-game industries, four associations representing Japan’s Internet service providers have agreed to take drastic action, the Yomiuri Shimbun [newspaper] said…

The Yomiuri Shimbun estimated that 1.75 million people in Japan use file-sharing software, mostly to swap illegal copies…

One [ISP] considered two years ago a plan to disconnect people who swap illegal files but dropped the plan after the government said it may violate the right to privacy, the Yomiuri said.

Japanese government officials were unable to be reached for comment by AFP.

GP: While we don’t condone illegal file-sharing, ham-handed moves like this one just leave GP shaking his head. Internet connections are as ubiquitous - and as necessary - as telephone connections in developed nations. Would the Japanese government permit its citizens’ phone service to be yanked out over pressure from Big Media?

The video game industry has long complained that China is a nation where copyrights don’t mean much.

But in what would appear to be a new low, the Chinese government’s official website for the upcoming Beijing Summer Olympics seems to feature online games lifted from Western creators.

As reported by Ars Technica, the IP theft was outed when developer Cadin Batrack scanned the Online Games section of the Chinese site and noticed what appeared to be an altered version of one of his designs:

According to Batrack, the Olympics’ game, Fuwa Fight the Winter Clouds, looks like someone downloaded and decompiled the SWF file from his site, swapped out some of the graphics, and then published it as their own game. Since this information was unveiled, Fuwa Fight the Winter Clouds has been removed, but it appears as if a couple of other games might also be copies.

Ironically, as Ars Technica reports:

The Beijing Olympic Committee have a stern warning on its site to deter anyone from stealing any of the IP posted therein (with fines up to $7,000 or five times the “illegal income” generated by the theft), but the site was developed by Sohu. Sohu is currently being sued for allegedly promoting online piracy (by providing links to illegal file-sharing web sites)…

Here in the United States, entertainment industry lobbying groups such as the ESA, RIAA and MPAA have wielded the Digital Millenium Copyright Act like a club against consumers. A member of Canada’s Parliament does not want to see the same thing happen north of the border.

As reported by Boing Boing, New Democratic Party member Charlie Angus (left) has ripped Industry Minister Jim Prentice over Prentice’s push for a DMCA-like law in Canada:

Prentice has consistently refused to allow public consultation into his bill, and instead has drafted a kind of wish-list representing the fondest fantasies of US entertainment giants.

Instead of marching off the same cliff that the US fell off of in 1998 with its DMCA, Canada could adopt a balanced copyright approach that will pay artists without criminalizing the public…

Indeed, Angus pulls no punches:

We are in no way obligated to go down the same dead end road as the United States with their restrictive legislation… However, if Mr. Prentice is going to let Canadian copyright legislation be written by U.S. trade interests he will certainly face a major backlash from both artist’s organizations, consumers and Canadian business groups.

GameDaily BIZ serves up a lengthy interview with ESA CEO Mike Gallagher (left). It’s definitely worth a read as the first-year CEO dishes on a number of topics, starting with piracy:

For video games, [piracy is] a $3 billion issue, and that’s from an industry that has $9.5 billion dollars in sales. That’s a huge amount of leakage… and it’s only going to grow as broadband speeds increase and as the hackers are more adept at circumventing [console] security preventions. It’s already just a disaster in the PC space…

How do we send the message?… we have an anti-piracy division within ESA… it works on enforcement very aggressively… we’re going after the sources of the material in Malaysia, Uruguay, and Mexico. We’re working together in Canada… North Korea… We’re also collaborating for the first time with MPAA…

Gallagher also mentioned last summer’s controversial Homeland Security raids on mod chip dealers inside the United States:

Domestically, we had a sting where we used 20 different locations, 16 different U.S. Attorney offices, which simultaneously busted a network of traffickers of pirated goods here in the United States.

GamePolitics was among those which questioned the ESA’s radio silence on Fox News’ January smear of Mass Effect. Gallagher spoke about why the ESA held back:

We have to be careful as an association that represents the entire industry, that our activities relative to specific companies and specific titles are very carefully selected. We certainly support the thrust of the industry activities and the reaction of the video gaming community to the distortion that Fox published…

Gallagher acknowledged the clout wielded by game consumers in the Mass Effect episode:

They pay attention, they are vocal, they are digital… they are heard immediately… That same power is what we want to harness when it comes to influencing policy makers. Policy makers are very gun shy about the Internet… they fear it because its mobilizing capabilities are outside their comfortable zones…

The ESA head diplomatically side-stepped GDB’s question about how the industry viewed the current field of presidential candidates:

[The candidates] love technology, they love high tech jobs, they all worry about the economy… So we’re going to focus on those and make sure that our profile as an industry is known to those campaigns… but the cultural aspect of video games, the historical [political] football nature of the industry in the presidential space means we have to be vigilant. I don’t necessarily see the risk being something we can look past with any of the candidates…

Asked about a threat by watchdog group the Parents Television Council to target candidates who accept campaign contributions from the ESA’s new political action committee, Gallaher was dismissive:

How many voices have you heard? The one. What we’ve heard in the meantime from other sources is many, many voices saying, “It’s about time [that the industry began contributing.]” And the politicians, our policy makers in this country, will be very appreciative of our industry’s support…

Those pesky Canadians…

A press release issued yesterday by the Entertainment Software Association calls on the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to provide support to the video game industry in its ongoing struggle with software piracy. The ESA, of course, represents the interests of U.S. video game publishers.

Citing what he calls “persistent problems” in Canada, China, Malaysia, Russia, and parts of Europe, ESA CEO Michael Gallagher said:

Countries that support computer and video game piracy discourage publishers from establishing viable and legitimate markets… In 2007, our industry had a record-breaking year with receipts totaling $18.85 billion, but piracy closes off promising markets, artificially limiting our industry’s ability to contribute even more economic growth to the American high-tech economy and economies of our trading partners.

The ESA makes reference to a report issued by the International Intellectual Property Alliance which cites online piracy as well as factory production of discs, Internet cafe piracy, game cartridge counterfeiting and file trading. Regarding Canada, the ESA press release alleges:

Pirated copies of games and circumvention devices have permeated retail markets in Canada, due to legal deficiencies and that [IP] enforcement remains a low priority for public officials.

GP: We note that the IIPA report does not cite a figure for pirated entertainment software in Canada. The organization does, however, report a loss of $511 million worth of business software in the Canadian market in 2007.

Other nations highlighted for IP theft issues by the ESA include China, Malaysia, Russia, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Paraguay and India. Said the ESA’s Gallagher:

We look forward to working with USTR and other supporting government agencies to achieve tangible results and hopefully succeed in lowering piracy in these key countries. Freeing these markets from the pirates’ stranglehold will also help empower a local video game economy.

A similar report from the ESA was released in February, 2007 (see: ESA Part of Group Seeking to Blacklist Canada).

Last week, GamePolitics reported on Yahoo! Games’ recap of where the major presidential candidates stand on video game issues.

Cnet’s Declan McCullagh has now penned an insightful article which outlines how the top candidates view some critical technology issues. While not game-specific, some of these issues will certainly affect gamers in a significant way. Writes McCullagh:

Who would be the most tech-friendly president?

The short answer: it depends. Do you like the idea of Net neutrality so much that you’d hand the Federal Communications Commission the authority to levy open-ended Internet regulations? Do you support pro-fair use changes to copyright law, which many programmers and computer scientists do–but which practically all software and video game companies oppose?

McCullagh sought the candidates’ positions on seven key tech issues: Net neutrality legislation; Telecom spying immunity; DMCA fair use reform; Supports Real ID Act; ISP data retention required; Permanent Net-tax ban; and Increased H1-B visas.

Of these, Net neutrality and DMCA fair use reform are probably of the most immediate interest to gamers, so we’ll look at those.

On Net neutrality, the question posed to the candidates was:

Congress has considered Net neutrality legislation, but it never became law. Do you support the legislation that was re-introduced in 2007 (S 215), which gives the FCC the power to punish “discriminatory” conduct by broadband providers?

Those strongly in favor of Net neutrality: Clinton, Obama
Those opposed: McCain, Paul
“Maybe”: Huckabee
Ducked question: Romney

On DMCA fair use reform, the question posed to the candidates was:

The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s section restricting the “circumvention” of copy protection measures is supported by many copyright holders but has been criticized by some technologists as hindering innovation. Would you support changing the DMCA to permit Americans to make a single backup copy of a DVD, Blu-ray Disc DVD, HD DVD, or video game disc they have legally purchased?

Those probably in favor: Obama, Paul
Ducked question: Romney, McCain, Huckabee, Clinton

Read McCullagh’s full article here…

ELSPA officials have completely disavowed a newspaper report in which the organization’s head of IP security is quoted as saying that 90% of American DS owners use a particular copyright circumvention device. gi.biz has ELSPA’s denial, quoting an unnamed spokesperson:

[IP security head John Hillier] didn’t quote The Sunday Post on any figures whatsoever. ELSPA (which represents U.K. game publishers) would certainly never presume to comment about America or anywhere else outside of the UK.

The quotes from The Sunday Post were ascribed to his name from another article which originates from a website in Singapore. This, it appears, is where The Sunday Post first found out about the supposed R4 situation and for some reason unknown to John have quoted him on what this article said.

As far as Nintendo are concerned, the facts are completely spurious.

An official with ELSPA, the European game publishers’ trade association, has told a U.K. newspaper that 90% of American Nintendo DS owners are believed to be using a Chinese-made copyright-cracking device known as the R4 (left).

In an interview with the Sunday Post, John Hillier, who manages ELSPA’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said:

Legitimate business is at serious risk from the R4… It gets around the protection built into the Nintendo DS to prevent playing of unauthorised games. The R4 in effect blinds the console and makes it think it’s seeing a genuine game. Trading standards and police are finding these devices in raids on people who sell pirated games…

The implications are massive. In America it’s thought 90 per cent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s. Takings from Nintendo DS games in the US are lower than any other console and no doubt it will have a similar impact here…

The R4 has shifted balance of power in the piracy industry to the consumer — and that is hugely worrying. That’s why we intend to stop trade in these chips wherever we can.

According to the Sunday Post, the R4 sells for about £40 in the U.K.

GP: While I don’t doubt that the video game industry has legitimate concerns about the R4 (see video below), the 90% figure cited by John Hillier is absurd on its face. 

Seriously, does anyone really believe that nine out of ten DS users are jumping through these hoops with their handheld? This comment, posted on Next Generation by a reader, pretty well sums it up:

NINETY percent? As in a nine followed by a zero? I find that number completely impossible to swallow. That means MOST of the little kids out there who got a DS for Christmas immediately went online and bought a chip.

Stake out the Wal Mart or Target near your home, and take note of how many people buy a DS in one day, now try to imagine nine in ten of them even knowing what an R4 chip is. Doesn’t work for me.

ELSPA is really overreaching in their bid to sensationalize this R4 boogeyman. I support their efforts to ensure that developers get paid for their games, but I suggest they make up a more believable statistic next time.

GP: I’m also wondering why ELSPA, which represents the European game industry, is issuing statistics on alleged American piracy. Why wouldn’t this “information” come from the ESA? Why wouldn’t ELSPA issue a percentage that relates to European use of the R4?

Early this morning I sent an e-mail to the ESA requesting clarification on this issue and will update the story when they respond.

Via: Next Generation

Could this be the end for the Recording Industry Association of America and its Draconian IP enforcement tactics?

Hey, digital consumers can dream, can’t we?

This dream, however, could become a reality. Ars Technica reports that EMI, one of four major record labels, may be dropping support of the RIAA. Ars cites a Variety article which holds that EMI will pull out of both the RIAA and the IFPI (U.K. version) by March 31st. The loss of EMI funding would be a huge blow to the RIAA.

The rub for the record label seems to be primarily philosophical. From the Ars Technica report:

EMI has been unhappy with the trade groups’ work for some time… EMI, the smallest of the four major labels, was recently purchased by a private equity fund that is looking to reinvigorate the label and cut expenses.

EMI was the first of the majors to drop DRM at iTunes and Amazon, moves that have made its digital music a more attractive option. But if EMI can force a restructuring of the IFPI and RIAA, the impact could be just as significant for the industry.

Few consumers will shed a tear if the RIAA goes away. The organization has become infamous for targeting consumers with lawsuits over digital music downloads.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the Darth Vader of the entertainment industry, is known for targeting average citizens who download music.

Now the RIAA has taken a new - and wildly outrageous - position. In a lawsut against an Arizona man who refused to knuckle under to a menacing letter from the RIAA, the organization asserts that it is illegal to transfer music from a CD one has purchased to one’s own computer.

From the Washington Post report:

Sony BMG’s chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that “when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Copying a song you bought is “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy,’ ” she said…

The RIAA’s legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only “created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies,” [New York attorney Ray] Beckerman says. “Every problem they’re trying to solve is worse now than when they started.”  

Via: Dvorak Uncensored

PC World Canada has a great piece out this week, 10 Worst Consumer Tech Trends.

We love it when author Erin Bell lays it on the line in her opening sentence:

I don’t care about corporate interests or revenue streams. I’m the consumer, and as far as I’m concerned it’s all about me.

While the article is about consumer tech generally, several issues identified by Bell affect gamers specifically. Like #9: Over-promising and under-delivering:

We’re still waiting to see the PlayStation Home (the MMORPG-like social networking platform that Sony announced for PlayStation 3 users).

Nor is she crazy about fanboys, who, collectively, weigh in at #8: 

Why do people feel such fierce loyalty to a corporation? You can rest assured the corporation doesn’t feel the same level of loyalty towards you.

But we really loved her thoughts on #7, region encoding:

Historically, if you bought a video game in Japan, it wouldn’t always work in your North American console… Add to the fact that not all movies and games are released world-wide, the only chance a North American gamer might have to play certain Japanese titles is to import them.

It seems strange that companies would rather deny consumers the right to experience games or movies altogether simply because they haven’t been officially released in that consumer’s country.

And Erin’s #1 consumer gripe? Digital rights management (DRM):

This is a no-brainer. DRM… the industry’s answer to piracy, has probably incited more consumers to pirate content than anything else in the history of consumer electronics… The most tragic thing about DRM is that it’s alienating ethical people who would otherwise pay to download songs, but who resent the restrictions that these songs come with.

So… explain to me again why homebrew can’t be supported?

Oh, right… it’s DMCA thing…

Still, famed game designer John Carmack (Doom, Quake) recognizes the homebrew potential the Nintendo DS and seems to wish that all of those creativity-killing IP restrictions weren’t in place.

In a lengthy interview with IGN’s Craig Harris, Carmack said:

[The Nintendo DS] was probably the most fun platform that I have personally worked on. The early consoles that I worked on (SNES, Genesis-32X, and Jaguar) had fun hardware and full documentation, but a lousy development tool chain. A lot of later consoles had much better development tools, but they started playing secretive with the exact hardware specs, at least around console introduction time.

While there are a few nooks on the DS that aren’t documented, they weren’t things I cared about, so to me it was almost perfect. It is a shame that homebrew development can’t be officially sanctioned and supported, because it would be a wonderful platform for a modern generation of programmers to be able to get a real feel for low level design work, to be contrasted with the high level web and application work that so many entry level people start with.

Carmack’s made his homebrew remarks while speaking to IGN about his upcoming DS game, Orcs & Elves.

Via: Next Generation 

Operation Games Attack…

No, it’s not a new release for the Wii. The name refers to a new anti-piracy initiative in Malaysia.

The ESA announced yesterday that it is teaming up with the Motion Picture Association (MPA, international wing of the MPAA) to battle video game and motion picture piracy in Malaysia. The ESA press release reported that “large-scale infringment” of video game IP was taking place in the Southeast Asian country. Said ESA boss Mike Gallagher:

The ESA focuses resources where we save US jobs, enhance the value of the video game industry, and get results. Piracy penalizes investment and harms the ability of video game companies to make great games. We are proud to partner with MPA on this program…

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), co-chair of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, added: 

I’m encouraged by this news and commend this joint enforcement effort. Malaysia has been a nation of concern with regard to international piracy for some time now, and this is exactly the type of private industry support and cooperation needed to crack down on this problem.

The announcement came during the launch of Operation Games Attack, which was presided over by a Malaysian government official.

If someone swiped your SexGen Platinum Base Unit v4.01 (left) or your Classic DeVille Floor Lamp, you’d complain wouldn’t you?

Hell, yeah…

A half-dozen Second Life entrepreneurs have done a bit more than that, actually. They’ve filed suit in U.S. District Court against a New York Second Lifer who, they allege, stole their virtual item designs and resold them within the game.

According to the New York Post:

Here’s the catch: The products aren’t real, and the alleged crimes took place in a virtual world on the Web. [The lawsuit] was filed last week in Brooklyn federal court against 36-year-old Flushing resident Thomas Simon, aka Rase Kenzo on Second Life…

“It’s stealing,” insisted Kevin Alderman, a Florida man whose Second Life alter ego is called Stroker Serpentine.

He operates the Second Life sex store Strokerz Toyz, which sells beds, sofas, rugs and toys embedded with computer code that facilitates sex between virtual characters…

Attorney Frank Tanney, representing the plaintiffs, said:

This is not a joke. This is not a game. This hurts them.

Defendant Simon told the NY Post:

They can say whatever they want to say. It’s a video game. I didn’t know you could sue anyone over it.

There’s actually quite a story behind all of this, including private investigators, co-conspirators and manipulations of Second Life’s inventory system, as described by Reuters.

Apparently the items were copied using an exploit, as reported by VintFalken. One of the plaintiffs has posted a lengthy set of screenshots, apparently documenting the allegedly stolen items, on Flickr. For those who want all of the legal nitty-gritty, here’s the complaint (73-page pdf).