Shared account..

I was wondering if sharing an account is illegal/against the code of conduct?

Yes, it is.

http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php

suggested reading

Sharing the password is against TOS. Whether it's OK to log in and then hand over the controls of your avatar once you're in-world, I don't know.

Best thing is to let the other person create an account of their own.

Alright, thanks everyone for your help, I just wanted to make sure before I made a decision that I probably would have regretted.

Might be interesting to ask LL how they deal with situations like Ansche Chung. Since "she" is actually a "they".

Plus there's "WorkingOnIt Linden" as well. I'm not sure the TOS specifically forbids corporate (meaning many acting as one) ownership of an account.

You might have regretted it for other reasons, too. I was once "involved" with a person who, several times, deleted me from her friends list, only to come back and hysterically accuse me of deleting her a day or two later. I eventually found out that she had given her password to her "girlfriend" and this GF was logging on as her and deleting me. Nothing good can come of sharing your password.

There actually is at least one documented (via a news report) of a 'group' of people being one avatar. It is related to a group of people in a home that all have some sort of handicap. Their caretaker, I believe it is, logs in and they all are the avatar. Not really sure how many actually sit at the keyboard and control the avatar because I vaguely remembers that some could not do that, but others might. I'm a little foggy on the details as it was quite a while ago when I saw the news clip on it.

when i was pissed off at theses turds, i went to the gteam and demanded FULL deets on the idea of avi sharing. it is against the tos and they really dont like it because they dont want the possiblity of a parent creating an avi and handing it over to a kid.

so officially they really take a proactive stand i.e :NO SHARING at all under any circumstances.

i WAS SPECIFIC IN MENTIONING JENNA JAMESON. and the g team was like LL doesnt care HOW MUCH MONEY the people are making, if they share an account it will result in a banning (not a suspension). There might be a warning involved etc.

However when I was given the greenlight to virtually "kill" Jenna Jamison (get her permabanned) by my handlers (rl porn turd rivals of hers i was associating with at the time), all manner of Linden "practicalities" came up, all of which involved the PROCESS of the abuse report.

first it had to be with ina certain time frame. so all the collected chat logs were dated by the time we decided to go on this lil vitrtual assasination. then there had to be voluminous ars caws one might get lost n the shuffle. we worked hand in glove with the gteam at the time but it was just too much crp to really get done.

(Sure I CAN just issue support tickects and bug individual Lindens but it all became a hassle. The Jenna Avi stil exists and is run by a cabal of tards ar em if ya think it would help . hehehe. tell em u wanna use her for a photos shoot and be cagey about the time. the tards will give ya enoughto incriminate themselves . hehehehe

Forget that it's against the TOS.

Think about your own security.

Never, never, NEVER transfer an account to someone else or give them your password. Never check that helpful box on the login screen "Remember my password". Enter it yourself every single time. And password protect your computer too.

Anyone who can access your SL account can screw up your social relationships, ruin your reputation, mess with your friends' heads in your name, do stuff to get your account banned, spend your L$, cash out your account.

Don't give access to ANYONE. Not your SL sweetie, not your RL spouse, not your kids. Nobody. Ever.

I hope that's clear.

THIS !!!! Repeat it over and over and over.

No sharing an account is NOT a violation of the TOS.

There are many legitimate reasons for doing so. as is discussed further here:

For some reason I get a 403 error forbidden page when ever I try to post this message quoting paragraph 2.3 of the TOS

Various words cannot be used after (Meaning at any point later in the entire post) other various words, because they are seen as code. It's silly, and verymuch annoying.


Also, section 2.3 states sharing your password to be at your own risk, but 2.4 states:

"A single account may be used by a single legal entity at Linden Lab's sole discretion and subject to Linden Lab's requirements."

as well as

"You may not transfer your Account to any third party without the prior written consent of Linden Lab; notwithstanding the foregoing, Linden Lab will not unreasonably withhold consent to the transfer of an Account in good standing by operation of valid written will to a single natural person, provided that proper notice and documentation are delivered as requested by Linden Lab. "

Section 2.3

Some have taken this section to mean that account sharing is ok, but you still hold all the responsibliy.
I remember one famous banning when someone let their underage son use their SL account to demostrate at a confernce how easy it is to use SL.

By my understanding, 2.3 states that the security of your password is your own responsibility, not theirs, and any results from you sharing it are your own fault. This would save LL from hassle from 'Letting others log into my account' after someone shares a password. It seems like a legal thing, another layer of protection.

As I quoted above, 2.4 sounds like it pretty clearly says only one person may use each account, and transfers require written consent. The only cited difference is in the case of a will, which will only be denied in very rare event of their being a logical reason to deny it.

There is lots of good advice in the comments given above. No one should share their password without a very clear understanding of the risks involved. However there are numerous businesses in SL that share certain avatars within their organization for specific business purposes. Many prominent organizations in SL have done this, such as NCI, XStreet, OnRez, Ansche Chung and The Shelter. For example, XStreet uses one avatar to place its terminals, any number of XStreet employees could be logging into that avatar to do its business.

The TOS language refers to a "Single Legal Entity" which is not limited to a single individual. See the definitions I referenced below.



Most of the language regarding this is probably intended primarily to provide LL with legal protection should you share your account with someone else, and they gain access to your funds via your credit card or Paypal account. To the best of my knowledge they have never taken any action to require organizations such as those listed above to submit to LL for approval, nor have they banned any such accounts.

If you are discrete and not causing trouble by sharing an account they probably really don't care.

Definitions:

http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Legal+entity
Legal entity - A person or organization that can legally enter into a contract, and may therefore be sued for failure to comply with the terms of the contract.

From the Wikipedia
The term legal entity is sometimes used:
- to refer to a juristic person, an artificial entity that the law treats for some purposes as if it were a person, such as an incorporated organization.
- as a general term to describe all entities recognized by the law, including both juristic and natural persons.

I share my account with my computer. It seems to have a life of its own.