SECOND LIFE, Jun 17 (Reuters) - Linden Lab has deleted objects from the virtual world in response to DMCA complaints, according to resident reports.

“Over the past few days a lot of content has been removed,” said Kevin Alderman (Second Life: Stroker Serpentine). “They did a sweeping takedown.”

“I logged on today to find that the SexGen objects that I made using the free 62 SexGen object, have all been removed, as have there [sic] scripts,” said avatar Sgoobzy Sideways in the Second Life forum (Second Life login required).

“I have just discovered the same loss of scripts, but mine weren’t SexGen,” Nickola Martynov added on the same thread.

Alderman, who holds the SexGen copyright and initiated two infringement lawsuits last year, said he has no legal action currently underway and is surprised by the timing of Linden’s policy.

In the past, Linden Lab has showed reluctance to get involved in copyright disputes between its customers. The company issued a somewhat puzzling statement on Tuesday afternoon that said some content was accidentally “disabled” but then reiterated its DMCA policy.

“Linden Lab inadvertently disabled some inworld content this past weekend,” the company said on its official blog. “Linden Lab has not changed its DMCA policy.”

“When we receive a valid DMCA notification, we send affected Residents email notice so they aren’t surprised when we remove content from their inventory and inworld locations,” the statement continued.

Second Life has a fully realized micro-economy in which entrepreneurs sell each other virtual goods and services. But without any police or law enforcement, theft of intellectual property — avatars copying each other’s software, often brazenly — has emerged as a serious problem for virtual world-based businesses.

Avatars can file a complaint with Linden Lab under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act asking Linden Lab to remove pirate content from their servers. But Second Life residents have complained Linden’s follow-up to DMCA notices has been spotty at best.

Frustrated Second Life business-owners have turned to lawsuits as an option. Last year Second Life users Robert Leatherwood (Second Life: Volkov Catteneo) and Thomas Simon (Second Life: Rase Kenzo) were sued for distributing copies of virtual objects. Both cases settled for nominal amounts.