This is just plain sad! Get a real life and communicate with real people!

real person, Sherwood Park,

There's a Jamiroquai song that sums this up quite nicely ...
"futures , made of , ... "

Benzo, Nr Chelmsford,

I can't believe this..can't you sue virtually with virtual lawyers and virtual court and win Monopoly money? Come on, someone make a court and a lawyer set up and challenge the combatants to settle on line for a dime!

Michael MacKenzie, Bolton, Lancs UK

This is a new area of law. Virtual suits, so to speak, will become more common as IP rights become more prevalent. Unfortunately, this involves a design consideration rather than an actual new design. Is this "product" substantially different than the designs on the virtual and physical markets available today, enough to warrant a patent on the methodology to create it? I doubt it. I've seen beds similar to this in the "real world," possibly never in the "virtual world," however, it does seem to have four posts, a blanket covering, and a similar sheen to other beds that I've seen. The question at heart is whether it remains substantially different to warrant some type of infringement, which I do not believe it does. It is a frivolous but interesting lawsuit nonetheless. Do not pass go, do not collect $400 dollars.

Ralph, Yonkers, NY, NY, NY

The thing is we get ideas from each other. I bet the original guy who designed the sex bed got his idea from someone else, but just modified the idea and made it better. It is just that he was not as obvious as someone else.

Ginseng, SF,

I don't think its childish to use the law in a perceived copywrite infringement. Whether the item in question is a piece of code or a painting both are protected by copywrite law. If David Naylor is right and there is no direct copying of code or graphics it would undoubtedly fall under the definitions of fair use and the developer of the original "bed" will lose the trail. If however there has been any direct plagiarism to file a lawsuit under copywrite law seems to be a logical solution to the problem.
Just because something is virtual doesn't mean it shouldn't be protected. Micky Mouse is just a character in a series of animations but Disney has made very clear through lawsuits and otherwise that though Micky Mouse only exists as a character in a carton, the character is still copywrite by Disney.

John, milwaukee, USA

That is real lame.. It is real childish to sue your competator.

The whole great thing of having competators is to bring the price down. One thing that is not mentioned in this article is if the creator of this sex bed, if they have created all these 150 sex animations, my guess is he has not. Probably most of them are store bought of free ones. It is not suprising these two beds end up a like, they are using the same lsl script to create them, the menu system will be the same.

If the guy is successful to sue this guy, this will mean the inovation that will occure within SL will swelter. You can't get ideas from anyone anymore? Look at windows OS, they got the look of the interface from Mac, both of them still survive. The guy just needs to provide an improved version of his bed to beat his competator, not be so childish and complain to lawyers.

Ginseng, SF,

The saddest part of it is that there are those poor souls for whom time spent "in" that "bed" may be the only intimate interactions in their lives.

Siddhartha Vicious, DuBois, USA

In that case, can some body be sent for trial in the real world for committing a sexual offence in the cyber world such as sexually assaulting a virtual female character in a computer game?

Wing, Poole, UK

Cool!

Kong Kek Kuat, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.