Are there in world rules about false advertisement?

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong area of the forums.

I've been flying around the world tonight looking mainly at areas that pop up in the place finder, and then comparing them to what is actually offered at those places. Especially the camping chair adverts.

I know we aren't allowed to name names, however there is one place that is one of the most popular places, that is a 512 plot of land that is nothing but camping chairs. My problem isn't that it's just camping chairs. My problem with it is that in the little blurb that pops up it says that the chairs are set at $20 every 10 minutes. When I saw that I thought that mabey I should get into the camping business However when I got there I realized that that was not the case at all. The chairs start off at 3L every 10 minutes, and then you have to play 10$L a spin slot machines to try to get bonuses that increase the amount your chairs give you.

I'm thinking about this from the persepective of someone who comes online and uses the find menu for the first time. If they see an advertisement on the list of the most popular places in sl and show up only to find that it's blatantly false advertising, that's not good for the game at all.

Is there any way to report stuff like this to the Lindens to have the people that are doing this kind of stuff (blatant false advertisement, not like listing that you sell low prim furniture and when you get there there isn't any) change their postings? If not there should be.

And.... discuss

NOTE: This isn't a thread about Camping Chairs, I just used that one example because it was a very easy example to find. It's about people being allowed to engage in false/deceptive advertisement in game

Nope, no rules at all - not even a suggestion that having a vendor that showed you a pre-fab mansion and instead sells you a plywood cube is a Bad Thing. Ain't unregulated capitalism great?

The only inworld publishing rule we have is a sim's PG rating.

CS says basically "no".


The Terms of Service leave more room for interpretation, but mostly this serves just as a legal disclaimer and waiver; and isn't enforced as the CS is.

One could make an argument that right to property is being violated through false advertising, if both the seller and buyer are in the same municipality that a law exists to protect from Internet fraud.

In the strictest sense, if you do something that would win in a civil court, it's technically against TOS.

Whether or not the hypo constitutes fraud, I agree that misrepresentation can amount to a tort, and thereby would be a breach of the TOS. The victim would be the camper.

I fall off the bus when you say a "right to property" is being violated by commission of a tort. Which property right are you thinking of? I don't see the camper as having a property right, other than to their time, which is generally not regarded as a property right.

So, what might be a sequence of escalation for complaints that a camper chair operator is misrepresenting their rate? To the chair operator, then to the land owner, then to LL?

And if that did not work, how might folks self-organize a way to circulate the word that Chair Operator "X" advertises falsely? Is there an equivalent of "Consumer Reports" published in world? If not, why not?

By property, I meant L$.

Sorry that wasn't clear.

It should be known there are federal guidlines setforth by the FTC on false advertising. So if it's not a local crime its federal.

you could argue that they failed to provide the service they agreed to, that service being to give you L$'s. Arguing it this way wouldn't introduce the notion that the L$ has value and could be taxable.