What is Protected Land?

I am looking to purchase mainland property. Some of the land I am seeing is "protected waterfront". When I searched on "protected land" in the Knowledge Base under Support, I found this:
"Protected Land
Land that is owned by Governor Linden and named "Protected Land" will not generally be sold to Residents or terraformed. Reasons for making land Protected vary, but a common one is that land can be Protected in order to hold pathways, canals, or flight paths open.
Can I build on Protected land?

You can try, but do so with the understanding that whatever you've built on it, if you can build there at all, may be removed if we notice it (or if someone complains about it). Protected land is called that for a reason."

Does this mean that buying "protected waterfront: is a bad idea, because anything I build there might be removed? Maybe it's mostly a good thing for people who want to buy something to get more prims?

Protected Waterfront can mean two things:

a) it's land in between a Linden road (that is, protected land) and water, so you don't have to worry about development on that side.
b) it's land on the side of water where the water is a defined part of the sim, instead of just being the edge of the map. (Map edge "waterfront" is dangerous because the map can expand, and then the waterfront stops being waterfront.)

Parcels bordering true protected land are actually more valuable because it means your view/surroundings will "always" stay the way it currently is in that direction.

If you buy a beach parcel bordering protected water, you know that that part will not be obscured or ruined.

Be very careful with land that is advertised as bordering protected land though, in some cases it's deceptive (what looks like an ocean now could simply be void and waiting for a new sim to be put there a week later) or plain false.

If you can't figure it out on your own, ask someone else to be sure .

Beware of the false advertising too. A number of land sellers don't change the description of the land, when they subdivide, and the protected land could be on the other side of the sim.

You can't build on protected land. If your land is bordering protected land (including waterfront), as long as you keep within your land boundaries, you'll have no problems.

The best way to check if it's really protected? Look at the land surrounding the block you want to buy. Right click on those blocks and look in their land menus. If it says the owner is Governor Linden & maintenance, you should be ok.

This is not always true. Land that has been abandoned or reclaimed by LL due to non-payment is marked as maintenance, but will eventually be resold.

My experience is that truly protected land (like a road or waterway) that is PART of a sim will be marked "protected". If it is not, then it is not protected, and may eventually be resold.

More difficult to determine are the full sims of Linden ocean. Most protected ocean sims on the last several continents are NOT marked protected. Unfortunately LL also sometimes sells full ocean sims. In my experience, full ocean sims on a completed continent are safe, but on a continent currently being built (like Corsica at the moment) it's iffy. In this case I would look at protected waterways in other nearby sims... if they lead to the ocean sim, it's likely that it's protected. But if the open ocean sim ALSO has a separate parcel in the shape of a waterway, then you can be pretty sure the non-waterway part will be sold.

SO the properties that are labeled "Protected waterway" - am I misreading things and they are adjacent to protected waterway? They had prims on them. If you can't build on protected land, then I have to be missing something somewhere.

Sorry Rhiannon, it IS a bit confusing.

The actual protected waterway will be owned by someone with the last name of Linden, probably Governor Linden. It is usually named "Protected land" if it is just a parcel in a region. If it is the whole region, it may not be named "protected", but instead just have the region name as the parcel name (see my notes above about how to tell if whole regions are protected).

This Linden protected land is the land Linden Lab keeps open for public use. It will not be for sale, so you won't see it in the land sale search.

Land that IS for sale by another resident that is marked "protected waterway" or "protected border" is private land that you can buy, but will be next to Linden protected land. At least in theory... as mentioned above, many sellers add this label mistakenly or as a flat out lie.

I'll be inworld later. If you have a piece of land you aren't sure about, feel free to send me a landmark to it. I'll go take a look and let you know if it really does have a protected border, and probably give you my opinions about if the land is worth what the seller is asking (because some will allow you to negotiate a lower price).

If you aren't sure how to send a landmark, just IM me with the region name and the coordinates (you can see those at the top of your window where the parcel name is). Don't be shy about asking for help... I love looking at land for sale, even when I'm not the one buying it.