LL deleted all my inventory after a few months away

Is LL in fact the owners of all things we make? Read on for my story and my questions.

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I was always told (since 2005) that LL doesn't delete avatars or inventory. I didn't know that they changed their ways and now do delete avatars and inventory.

Here's my story:

I have been unemployed for a year, so I couldn't afford to keep my premium account. I sold my $L to paypal. Then I changed my account to not-renew as premium. There was an issue with the website where my change to a basic account didn't go through. Also, there was an issue with paypal, and they didn't process my USD$37. So, Linden Labs kept me at a premium account and took the $37, then shut down all access to my account until I paid up.

Unable to pay up, I asked many times in e-mails with the new LL support group to just keep the $37 and give me access to my avatars. They refused. I tried again. They refused. I finally got fed up and gave up.

A few months later (after playing around with OpenSim) I decided I wanted to visit friends again on the grid. I found a toll-free number and called it. After listening to me they told me they would keep my money and give me basic account access again (you are welcome, LL. Enjoy the free $37).

But they also told me that they had almost deleted my account, and likely all my inventory -- so expect no inventory on login.

To new folk, this might not seem like much, but to people who have been part of SL since 2003 or 2004, this is huge.

Linden Labs did indeed delete my inventory.

Everything. Calling Cards. Group membership. Clothes. Objects.

They also deleted all those audio files and textures that I made for SL and paid to upload to their servers.

Now, I *PAID* to upload them to the servers. And since they are MY IP and I paid to upload them, and these sounds and textures are still being used, then isn't LL required to return these IP artifacts to me?

Not sure what the answer is, and to be honest I'm far more upset that LL now deletes you from Second Life if you fail to pay them. That is far more upsetting to me, since it means that LL has decided that they are in fact the true owners of everything we create, including ourselves.

-Postie

NO- they can do this?

From the TOS.



3.3 Linden Lab retains ownership of the account and related data, regardless of intellectual property rights you may have in content you create or otherwise own.

You agree that even though you may retain certain copyright or other intellectual property rights with respect to Content you create while using the Service, you do not own the account you use to access the Service, nor do you own any data Linden Lab stores on Linden Lab servers (including without limitation any data representing or embodying any or all of your Content). Your intellectual property rights do not confer any rights of access to the Service or any rights to data stored by or on behalf of Linden Lab.

I would be very sad if my inventory was deleted while i was gone. I feel for you.

Blessed be Lifetime Accounts.

Oh, Postmark, so sorry

Yes, well of course - they can't have X million people all claiming ownership of a bit of code. The point is more about human kindness, and what should be, rather than what is to the letter of the law.

I think that after a certain period of time an inactive premium should be downgraded to a free account and left intact except for its landholdings; an inactive free account should receive an email saying, "Log in to SL or the website if you value your account, or it will be deleted" long before it is wiped.

I'm a big fan of kindness.

I just posted the part of the TOS that is relevant. Don't necessarily agree or disagree with it but maybe I am one of the few that read it before I signed up. I don't put into SL anything I don't expect to loose. "Virtual" anything isn't a solid investment in my opinion.

With that said deleting the guys inventory is strange without deleting the entire account. Just goes to show they careless about the player and just want the numbers of accounts to make them look good.

Things have changed quite a bit over the years as far as what was and was not stated as company policy. I think a TOS section like that is a legal necessity as digital data will often poof into the aether, but I don't see it as the company drawing a line regarding their treatment of resident inventory. One is a protective boundary fence, the other is the voluntary way they structure their treatment of customers, including those who have gone astray, and although practicality has much to do with it, so too should good faith and public relations. I do believe LL cares, and tries hard to do what they can, but they have a lot of ground to cover.

I have no clue as to the day-to-day operations, how much clean-up is necessary (and how automated those tasks are), or how many accounts need to be recycled, but I do know that to me I am a resident of a digital country and my account carries more in it than just some silly bits of data. I love Second Life, and care deeply about the friends I have found here - all that's contained in my account as well.

This post is a bit over the top, but it's an important issue to me.