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Plaintiff Says Defendant In Virtual Sex-Toy Suit Is Teen

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

Previous Coverage: Lawsuit May Bring Reality To Virtual Community

TAMPA - The mysterious avatar who illegally copied and sold a virtual sex toy actually is a 19-year-old man who lives in Texas with his grandmother and great-grandmother, said Kevin Alderman, the entrepreneur who has built a business in a virtual online community known as "Second Life."

Nearly four months after Alderman and his company, Eros, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tampa against the online persona, or avatar, who went by the name Volkov Catteneo, the federal complaint has been amended to include what Alderman says is the real name of the avatar: Robert Leatherwood of North Richland Hills, Texas.

"We found our man," Alderman said this morning.

But Leatherwood, who described himself as a high-school dropout with no job, said he's not the guy they're looking for. "They've got no evidence whatsoever," Leatherwood said during a telephone interview this morning. Although he acknowledged having access to the Volkov Catteneo account and using it, he said it's "not officially mine." He also said he did not use or copy Alderman's device, the Sex Gen. "I'm not into that kind of stuff," he said.

Second Life is a three-dimensional Internet community where businesses thrive, universities teach, musicians perform and people fly. The Sex Gen is a device that manipulates Second Life personas, or avatars, into different positions.

Alderman, whose avatar goes by the name "Stroker Serpentine," considers himself the "Hugh Heffner of the digital millennium." He sold a plumbing contractor business in Tampa to build Eros, a virtual-world company with 12 real-life employees who design and build adult-themed objects in Second Life. He says he sells about 1,000 Sex Gens a year for the equivalent of about $40 each.

The Tampa lawsuit is thought to be the first copyright infringement lawsuit ever filed involving virtual products.

Alderman's attorney, Frank Taney in Philadelphia, said that his investigation found Volkov Catteneo logged into Second Life from computers in two houses. One of them was in the home where Leatherwood lives and the other in a house where residents say Leatherwood used a computer and entered Second Life.

"How many people on this planet could it be?" Taney said.

"I do believe they may have been misdirected on this," Leatherwood said. He said "an ex-friend of mine in Dallas" called up Alderman and Taney "as soon as he got whiff of what they were looking for. He called them up and claimed I was this avatar they were looking for. We're on pretty bad terms a lot of fighting."

Leatherwood said Catteneo is a hacker who gave him access to the account in case he "disappeared" or the account otherwise were to become idle. He said the hacker fears being jailed for causing problems on the Internet. "He's in a lot of trouble over crap he's done in the past," Leatherwood said.

Leatherwood initially said he wouldn't disclose the hacker's name because he's afraid of what the hacker will do to him. "He could easily compromise all my freakin' identity info and tie a bunch of crap onto it and other stuff like that," Leatherwood said.

At another point in the interview, Leatherwood said he does not know the hacker's real name. "If I could have given it out, I would have. …I only know him within Second Life. … We used to occasionally hang out in Ventrillo," which Leatherwood described as a voice chat program.

Taney said he found Leatherwood's claims "hilarious." The lawyer said he talked to Leatherwood a couple of days ago. "He said he's never heard of Volkov Catteneo."

Taney said he and Alderman offered Leatherwood "a very, very reasonable deal," a settlement in which Leatherwood would pay "a small amount of money" and agree to "cease and desist what he's doing and cease and desist helping anybody else do it," Taney said. The proposed settlement also would require Leatherwood to provide technical information about "how he did it."

Leatherwood has not responded to the proposal, which was offered Monday, Taney said.

"If they want some information, I'd be happy to comply with them," Leatherwood said this morning. "But there's no way they'd be able to get any cash out of me. … I don't have any money."

Alderman says he doesn't think he will get much money from Leatherwood. "It really never was about the money," he said. "It was about the deterrent. … More than likely we'll get a default judgment, and it'll be on his credit history, and it will affect him for a long time to come.

In the meantime, Eros has joined forces with six other businesses that sell wares in Second Life, suing a New York man they say has copied their products.

Taney said the products range from Alderman's sex toys to clothes and shoes for avatars in the virtual community.

The latest lawsuit has been filed in federal court in New York.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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