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Defendant ID'd In Sex Toy Suit

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

TAMPA - A figure at the center of a federal lawsuit over an online sex toy is a 19-year-old man living in Texas with his grandmother and great-grandmother, said the man who developed the toy.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa, has been amended to attach a real name to the figure or avatar known as 'Volkov Catteneo' in the virtual online community Second Life.

He is Robert Leatherwood of North Richland Hills, Texas.

'We found our man,' said Kevin Alderman, a Lutz entrepreneur who has built a business within Second Life. He is seeking damages in the lawsuit for what he calls the illegal copying of the sex toy, raising a digital age question: Can what happens between made-up characters in virtual reality have real-world, legal consequences?

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 in a telephone interview Thursday. Although he acknowledged using the Volkov Catteneo account, 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.

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.
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's attorney, Frank Taney in Philadelphia, said his investigation found Volkov Catteneo logged onto 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 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.'

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 deal in which Leatherwood would pay 'a small amount of money' and '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, Taney said.

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.

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

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