Who to contact for TOS question when not having premium account ?

Hi all

I built an object and have doubts if it infringes the TOS or not.

I do not have a premium account. So you should I contact and how to ensure I'm not "illegal" (!).

I just want to ensure I'm on the good rails !

Maeva

You won't be able to get an official answer without being Premium, but what is the item you've made? Probably people here will be able to advise you.

If there are no appropraite Linden office hours you could try

Rez the object
Abuse report your own object picking the option that most matches where you think it might be a violation. Then explain in the body of the AR what you are doing and why.

Elex would know the answer, of course.

Well I don't want to post info about my item here, as I guess there will be an endless thread of remarks with pros and cons !

I just want a clear go/no go decision from LL

Just show up at the Governance team office hours.

You won't ever get a clear and final "go" decision.

The Lindens won't give you an answer even if you were a premium so your best bet is to ask the community for advice which means talking about whatever you coded. Odds are whatever you made has been done many times before so I doubt it's a secret and if your creating something you want to sell just talk broadly about it so nobody can steal your idea.

I'd suggest office hours, but, it's hard to get their take on a specific case there. Most of the time, they refuse to address it. (>_<

I'd suggest IMing a GTeam Linden. But, it's shaky to know which ones are online, and if they're not too busy to respond. (=_=)

Really. Rez your object where you can and AR it by yourself, or with an alt. Note in the AR details that it's a self-AR and watch how things work out. Most of the time, no news is good news. (^_^)y

If your object is causing you doubts about being in violation of the TOS then I imagine it will cause others to have doubts too. Obviously you don't want to talk about it openly so your choices are somewhat limited. You can try the open Governance office hours route but I doubt you'll get a green light from them........again, if it's that close to a TOS violation to you it will be the same for the Lindens. You can give the AR yourself a shot, but you won't get a clear answer there either.....and a "no answer" means nothing either way. You can just go ahead and make your object, sell, give away, whatever and see what happens over time.......worse that will happen is that you get a warning and will have to stop what you are doing (unless it's grossly outside the TOS......and since you are in somewhat of a gray area that isn't the case). Or you can play it safe and forget about it.

Being a prmium account does not make your "problem" any easier.......the same applies.

Hm. Objects in and of themselves don't violate anything; it's usage or intent or possession or... all that kind of thing. I like the "AR yourself" idea - although do it with an alt, just in case it backfires...

Perhaps one could make an object that was like the legendary deadly weapon of war: the "killing joke" which made anyone who heard it die laughing... Imagine an object that violated every possible thing one could think of.

One rez of it, and boom... permabans, ip bans, and MACaddress blocks, nobody left to tell the tale! Except for the next innocent bystander that discovered the object innocuously lying around afterward. After a while people would start to wonder why nobody was left on the Southern Continent...

Well. It would make a good story, anyway.

DO NOT AR yourself. EVER!

ask someone that's a regular in these forums (who's not unrealistically prudish/squeamish) to come take a look at it and let you know.

read the TOS and try to find any rule that will fit your question to see if it can be used against you.

or, use it and wait until someone complains. as long as you are not infringing on others, violating obvious child/adult stuff, gamlbing, etc... nobody will likely even care. i mean... have you seen some of the stuff being used in SL? makes me blush, even though it's just a cartoon.

Well, for sure my item has nothing new.

In fact it has to deal with profile pics. But there were so many conversations with the pros and cons, that I'd like to avoid entering again in this kind of loop, and just know from the relevant authority if this is ok or not...

My fear is to banned suddenly with no access to my avatar...

ahhhh Profile pics. Definitely suggest Governance team office hours then. It is where I ended up with the first official clarification on the matter. What I was told is that it is alright to display another persons profile pic if you have their permission, otherwise no. They even rezzed a cube which displayed a profile pic to make sure that we knew, that they knew, what we were talking about.

OK explain, because we have heard to AR yourself allot. Now i have always questioned that advice and it sounded like a road you did not want t go down but was wanting a little clarification

Tried to contact some GTeam members.... with no success....

So should I AR me finally ? Why shouldn't I do that ?

There is no harm in ARing yourself to get the attention of a Gteam Linden's attention on something you're concerned about. They are not opposed to the practice, understand why it would be necessary, and are willing to respond in a way that won't appear on your account's record. (^_^)

Saying something like "My main account is *** and I'm using my alt to report myself to verify the legality of my actions" works just fine. Though... It's not a guaranteed response. The majority of the time, no news is good news and if you've heard nothing for a period of 48 hours; your concern really isn't worth their time... So you have relatively nothing to fear of any future ARs on your situation causing you any trouble. (^_^)

This all comes from advice that I received during Gteam office hour meetings, and have assisted people in putting into action. As far as I know, the result of each action satisfied each person's concerns. (^_^)y