how do covenants work?

Is the covenant just a written description of what's expected of landowners or is it a set of rights that is technically enforceable in some way?

It's technically enforceable by estate owners and managers, who can always reclaim parcels--it provides an easier way to see the terms and conditions of a given piece of land in a region. Currently (and in the past), this was often done via notecard. Now, you just drop a notecard into there for easy viewing so it's harder to miss.

A fundamental addition is land on private islands can now be sold if an estate owner or manager so chooses it, providing greater control in the Resident land market. You'll see:
in a covenant when that's applicable.

So how will the covenants work on the mainland?

Here on the preview I bought a piece of Bonifacio and it game me the Birthday schedule as the covenant, are we going to have to agree to some deal with Gov Linden for our mainland buys?

And I also just acquired a sim on the main grid, we going to get any ability to set up covenants or is this just going to be an island power?

-Shawk

^ O dang that was me mucking around, I guess that wasn't wiped before public Preview. Since you already participated in SL3B, Shawk, you're clear. (Joke of course.)

Currently, Covenants can only be specified by Estate Owner or Manager on a private island. Which means that on the mainland, there won't be any special covenants. Gov. Linden will not be changing the terms--what you see in Preview Grid is for testing purposes only. So disregard any wacky covenants.

However, we're mindful of making more enhancements to mainland tools--just like we've recently done with the ban heights. We want to continue this, and to me personally, mainland concerns are extremely important. If you have any specific ideas or vote proposals you've been supporting, please feel free to let me know!

Some Covenants ban the use of Ban Lines, is there any way we can enable it so that estate managers can enforce this rule?

Is there a place that I could download a description of the covenent system and how it works on the mainland? Short of going to the preview or guessing what question to ask?

Sorry this may have been somewhere under my nose.