Inappropriate post?

There was a question asked in the off-topic forum about a former SL resident whose account was closed, but who recently bid in the auctions. The question was how that could happen. There were also some questions about what happens to resident assets if LL decides to ban an account.

If you have similar questions, here's what I posted regarding the process around closed accounts:

When an account has been terminated due to someone violating the Terms of Service or Community Standards the following happens:

- their account is closed, and they no longer have access to Second Life or their SL assets including L$ and land
- their land is put up for auction in US$. From the proceeds we deduct anything owed to LL, and a fee to cover time in conducting the resale. Anything remaining is sent, in US$, to the owner of the account.

Once an account has been terminated, the owner is no longer eligible to participate in the auctions, and an attempt to do so will just mean the auction is invalid and we'll re-auction the parcels.

For reference, see the Terms of Service sections 3.7 and 7.1, and the Auction FAQ , first question.

A separate question has come up about whether that thread should have been deleted since it was about a specific individual, and could possibly be construed as trolling.

I left the post because I thought the questions it raised were important, and that they deserved an answer in a public place. The post doesn't reveal any real life information, nor is it a private conversation between two people rather than a community discussion.

Thank you Robin, for being open and forthcoming about issues in SL! Keep up the good work!

A question Robin, please to further explain the new guidelines in the TOS if you are terminated.

What happens to your creations? What happens if you have those up for sale in-world and they continue selling?

What would happen if your items you were selling, that you created in their originity were stolen and resold by others?

Meaning, how would someone who has IP rights on their creation(s) ever stop them from being stolen?

And finally, other than the typical wording of "right to terminate use at any time" -- will there ever be a listing of what actually would invoke a termination of an account? The reason I'm asking is, I would not like to see a terminated account become a "He said, she said, he did, she did..." situation.

Another interesting possible question would be:

Considering that residents own the copyrights to the creations they create in-world; when an account is terminated, are those creations deleted entirely?

That's the comment that I was tippytoeing around, Icon.

How would one who is terminated protect their IP rights?

And to add on to that:

I was examining a selection of controversial weapons created by people who had used them to much negative effect, and of course, who had subsequently been terminated from SL. The weapons are still inworld, however.

IP rights are thorny.

Would it be something like ... Avatar A is banned, account terminated. All objects where Avatar A is the creator is deleted from everyone's inventory. No compensation to buyers.

I'd find that acceptable though horrible. We do take the risk in purchasing other's items. If that happened to say one of my fave clothes makers, I would bawl my eyes out. On second thought, please don't do that.

Maybe everything they created could have the permissions set to no transfer, no copy (via Linden God-mode). I sure don't want to be standing there all heart-broken AND naked. Been there and ... it ain't pretty.

You should let others be the judge of that

Thanks Robin!

I take it then that the situation that accured was a bug in the system?

Also, I know if theres a copyright issue, any copies of the items in question of copyright infringement are "frozen" and may be completeley deleted. (based on the Town Hall on copyright issues awhile ago)

So Linden Labs does own everything in-world, despite advertising claims to the opposite?

Apparently so.

Too bad for us, huh?

TOS 3.8 refers to dormant accounts, which would seem to cover cancelled accounts, those that ceased to be paid for, and banned accounts. Here it is:

"Account Retention. While your account is dormant, unless you renew your account, any land held by your Character in that account will become public to the Service after 30 days. Any of your Character's objects remaining in the Second Life world will begin to decay at that time and your character will lose them in their entirety. Avatars and inventory items held by your Character will be retained until the account has been closed and dormant for 60 days, at which point the account will be expunged. "

My question is how can an account be expunged when there is the 10$ for life acct? Wouldn't a premium account just revert to the basic acct? Or do you have to pay another $10 for a basic or switch it in your account profile?

That sounds a bit out of date to me, as I recall objects haven't "decayed" since 1.2

This would happen when you owned objects on public land, they would decay to public use slowly. I learnt this the hard way with an art shop I once made when I first started SL.

Note, this is also before the 10$ lifetime fee was introduced.

That's a good point. But I guess when someone's banned, it wouldn't work that way.