Purged of Intellectual Property... Is this fair?!

A long story short, I've been a premium member since July of 2003. The billing card on file was not current, which I admit to being at fault for, and I had missed the notification e-mails through the massive clutters of spam I get daily. I became aware of this when I contact Linden Lab because I was unable to access my account. They then went into saying that by restoring my account my inventory items 'MAY' be lost, because the account was not active for such and such time.

Optimistically, I update my billing information and restore my account, and continue to log in. Upon logging in, I notice my appearance to be that of a default avatar, and my inventory to be completely free of any and everything that I have created over the last 6 years. My own intellectual property in which I have worked hard in building, most of which classic, first ever built casino games, which had great sentimental value to me, completely gone and can never be replaced.

In a panic, I called Linden Lab back, and asked if there was ANYTHING they or I could do to get the last 6 years of my Second Life back, and they said that it was positively not possible. He then mentioned that they can't just leave items in the database, that they have to make room for new members, etc.

New members... You mean those that don't pay, play for a day while flooding their inventories with freebies, and never come back? I've been a premium member of Second Life for over 6 years. I've spent lots of money and time in Second Life, and have contributed a lot to it's history and community, and this is how I am rewarded? By destroying my own personal intellectual property in claims to allow space for new members? Wether the items are in my inventory or not, a great majority of them are still out there in Second Life, so what space are they saving? A list of keys and permissions?

Second Life does not natively allow intellectual property creators to back up or restore their items, and I truly am having a hard time believing that my inventory can not be restored to me. I am a paying customer, and have been for a very long time, and I would expect better handling of "Premium Members" and long time supporters.

Hi Chance,

Yes and no.

Yes it is fair according to the policies. You should have known this. That is what they will tell you.

But no, this policy is simply too stupid for words. Would you have been basic member, your inventory would have been preserved for much longer, which makes no sense. Something that has been said over and over in these forums. There probably is some unassigned Jira for it, too.

As a creator myself, I feel for you, but I don't think there is much they will do. Of course they should be able to get stuff back from backups or so, but their focus does not seem to be too much on early adaptors

How long was your account inactive?

At Jack's office hour last week, he claimed they have stopped doing this, although that change was recent. It was always a stupid policy to penalize Premium members by wiping Inventory of their payment-lapsed accounts, whereas Basic members could go absent for an indeterminate interval and lose nothing.

If this all happened very recently, it's definitely a major flaw in the supposed new process, and should be reported... I'd suggest, first, with a support ticket, and then taking that to Jack.

I notice that the relevant jira, http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-1961, remains unresolved and unassigned, although it got an internal ID back in June... so, not sure: perhaps Jack was just misinformed.

No, not fair at all.

If you had a basic account, it wouldn't have happened.

It is a crap policy. A basic member can leave an inactive account forever and keep their inventory, wheres a Premium who has some sort of payment mixup can lose it all. typical Linden Logic (tm).

Sorry for that, Chance, but this is Linden's policy

There is a JIRA n this: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-1961

I am premium since may/07, and once I become aware of this, I've made another premium account, that has an empty inventory, and when is time to renew payment for this one, I will downgrade to basic.

It is fair, imo. If I remember correctly, we had a discussion about it not too long ago, and, also if I remember correctly, it takes quite a few months before the account is deleted along with its inventory. During those month, LL do send emails, as Chance agreed. It is not LL's fault if the account holder doesn't see the emails. So, all in all, it is perfectly fair, imo.

What is not fair is that lapsed (inactive for a long time) free accounts don't suffer the same fate. But it's not that premium accounts are being short-changed, it's that free accounts get more than they merit.

From Jack's office hours last week:

Tha highlighted part (Jack's reply) reads to me that accounts no longer have "to pay a fair bit of money" to get the account reactivated", Qie. It doesn't suggest that he means the inventory not being wiped.

I should have highlighted the later line, too: "Jack Linden: We used to have a policy that old accounts would, after a period, get expunged. We changed that, so it no longer happens"

Just because Jack says they no longer do this, it doesn't mean the code knows to no longer do it. Or other Lindens for that matter.

Life isn't fair. Never has been, never will be. The sooner you learn this, the happier you will be.

Also, for the record, I've searched through my gmail and found both e-mails they sent as a warning (neither of which went into mentioning inventory purging, only account locking, and cancellation). I understand it may say it in the policy, etc. But a clear reminder in the notifications they sent would have been nice (all TWO of them).

Another disappointing fact, was I was aware I was unable to login to my account for some time, and when logging into the web panel to see why, the panel would not allow me to see ANY information, and just mentioned "Having password trouble? Call this number..." not showing my billing information or anything. I happened to only have time to check out SL on the weekends, which their offices were not open. Thinking it was only a password issue (not a billing issue), it was easy to forget to call LL about it during the week, until I had the time to spend in SL (weekends), which finally reminded me to call LL last monday about it.

Such a damaging policy should be more apparent, as well as billing issues should not be presented as "Password issues?" upon logging into the web panel. More than TWO notification e-mails to the effect of billing issues should be sent, including a final "Your account is now locked and subject to purging" would be AWESOME.

I understand policy is policy, but such a policy should be treated with more head and warning before the final action is taken. I have literally lost of 6 years of my life and work.

I am doing further due-diligence and writing another, much longer version of my original post, and will be mailing it to the Linden Lab corporate and legal offices, as well as entities which I hope to take interest in the matter.

Note: Can someone provide me a link with the policy in which states that your intellectual property will be destroyed? The best I can find to that effect is section 5.3 of http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php . Which states they have the RIGHT, but are not OBLIGATED to remove your property, but does not go into saying anything about property being removed due to account expired length. Is there a separate ToS for premium members to agree to?

That was a complete waste of a post, and has no bearing on the subject, only of the word "fair". Waste time elsewhere.

Learning life isn't fair has never really made me happy, Chris. Who's happy to know life isn't fair?... anyone?

Just one more reason to stop making content ON the SL platform. Why anyone still trusts LL with the only access of their Intellectual Property is beyond me.

Back-up all you creations with Meerkat or Emerald (while you can still use 'em!!) and keep your own database. Put the database on a gigstick and you will have WAY more security for your creations then you could have ever hoped for from LL.

Start creating on a standalone OpenSim or a cheap OSgrid region (you can get them as low as $45USD/month these days) and only bring into SL (via the soon to be outlawed 3rd party viewers above) what you are interested in selling or using for yourself.

Should LL decide to outlaw any viewer that allows you to back-up your property ... well,... one more nail in the coffin, I'd say.

Unfortunately, Chance, once something is purged from the SL database, you're not going to be able to get it back. 6 years of creations wiped is beyond "unfair" but at this point it's unfixable. Your creations don't exsist anymore, because LL doesnt care enough to back your stuff up.

Besides, you're an Early Adopter... LL hates you anyway.

I am very happy life isn't fair. That allows some to excel. Getting to the point where you stop whining "That isn't fair!!!111!!!!11!!" means you have reached some degree of maturity and contentment. Yes, life isn't fair.

You want life to be fair, read this story by Kurt Vonnegut.

"Harrison Bergeron"
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html

As to the OP, he has been here six years and he didn't know they deleted premium account inventories if they were owed money? I would almost guarantee he rode a couple months as a premium member free of charge, then he whines about having his stuff deleted? Bullshit. You don't pay your bills, you suffer loss. That is how it works in the real world. He had two choices, pay his bills or drop down from premium service. He chose to do neither one.

Always remember, Intellectual property is imaginary property.

Pie, color me stupid, but how do I go about creating a database of original creations outside of SL? Sounds like that might not be a bad idea.

OK Chris, here goes...."Harrison Bergeron" isn't about being treated FAIRLY, it's about being treated EQUALLY--there is a HUGE difference. The society created by Vonnegut in that short story is one where equality is achieved by making everyone carry the same burdens, be they physical or mental, and handicaps are prescribed to achieve that level of "equality". No one in that story, however, is treated "fairly."

I looked at that with Emerald and I couldn't find it, unless it's "export" in the pie menu, but that doesn't take any contents with it. It only takes an XML file of the prims, and Imprting them back into SL just produces the prims with no contents.. so scripted items can't be backed up that way. Is there another means of taking backups with Emerald?

Most people who whine about life not being fair, want things to be equal among everyone. Take the OP, he contracted for a service from LL. He broke the contract, now he is whining that he wasn't treated equally with non premium members.

No different than if he had rented an apartment or storage locker and skipped out for a couple months without paying the bill and leaving his stuff behind. It will be sold or disposed of.

I'm not so sure I agree with this. I think the OP was asking to be treated FAIRLY. That would, however, involve the Lindens looking at each case individually, assessing factors such as contribution to the grid, number of individual creations in inventory, length of time as a premium paying member vs. payment time elapsed, etc. The rules currently in place don't treat premium members FAIRLY when payment lapses. Why not just downgrade the account to basic and allow retention of inventory items? I don't want to be treated equally EVER (even based on gender--there are things men just do BETTER!) and would prefer to be treated as an individual based on my merits, strengths and weaknesses. The reality of rules, TOS and laws, however, is this--fair has nothing to do with it, especially in this case. Your suggested approach of "following the letter of the law" and the Linden's disregard for extenuating circumstances points to a much more dystopic approach than Vonnegut could have ever imagined.

Hey, does anyone have a lot of your stuff, only 'no mod' or something?

Certain Lindens can "zap" the permissions back to full mod.

Just saying.

What wasn't fair about it? He broke the contract and the Lindens disposed of his goods that were cluttering up their property. He didn't lose his "IP", he still has the ideas, unless he forgot them himself. Why should LL have to spend their time and money researching "how long he has been a member and how much has he created"? Why not downgrade it and leave the inventory? Because he owed them money. Simple as that. Doesn't matter if he logged in for those two months or not, he was still provided with the service. He did not pay for the service so he suffered loss. Sounds very fair to me.

Chris, you are being anti-productive and taking this thread off topic. Please stick to the topic and leave your irrelevant remarks to yourself.