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

You are a black and white kinda guy, aren't ya? I won't argue the "rules" with you because obviously LL followed the "letter of the law". I COULD argue the morality, integrity and "FAIRNESS" of what they did, but with black or white, my arguments wouldn't fall into either camp. Touche to ya.

Sorry Nexus, that was MY fault. I engaged Chris in off topic conversation, and he simply responded. I apologize. Next?

How am I taking it off topic? I am stating that the OP deserved to lose his stuff because he did not pay for the services he was provided. If it causes people to realize that there is no such thing as a free lunch then it is very productive.

Actually, I break numerous laws every day. If I get caught, I will take the punishment given to me. I won't whine about it. How is it fair for the OP to steal services from LL and then keep his stuff on their servers?

Basic account = you're storing your stuff for free in your cousin's barn. Odds are it will be there when you come back in a year, maybe not.

Premium account = you contracted with a storage company for climate controlled storage, and some extra perks. If you don't pay, your stuff will be auctioned off. You signed a paper explaining this in detail.

If you don't want to pay or don't want to lose your stuff (probably)....then store it in your cousin's barn.

There is if you have a Basic account.

How is the storage of Premium and Basic account inventory different in any way?

Sure, LL's policy is to trash your stuff if you have a premium account, but it's a stupid policy that does not benefit LL in any way. To the contrary it does nothing but alienate customers.

QFT

Because the premium member is contracting for services. By not paying he is stealing those services from LL, so losing his stuff is proper and fair.


It gives people an incentive to pay their bill or to stop using the premium services. So it does benefit LL.

But a Basic account did not contract with LL for services then skip out in the middle of the night.

Just speaking for your cousin here....have no idea what LL has in mind........

You've contracted for a service and perks with the climate controlled storage. Your stuff is collateral to cover the months you used it for free, and didn't pay. The storage company lost money on those two months.

Your cousin is not offering any additional services or perks, beyond letting you store your stuff in a barn with a leaky roof, that will never get fixed, and a barn that he never uses, and has no lock on the door.....so he is not concerned with getting paid or with the collateral aspect.

how unfortunate
The best reply I think is finding ppl with your items. Anything of major value that you purchased that you desperately need, contact those merchants and explain in a note card. Maybe they will work with you and resend some things, idk 6 years is a bitch to loose regardless of whose at fault. If you need anything I am more then happy to send you somethings. But seeing who has your items that you trust and having the lindens reset perms, sounds viable. Keep on that phone and talk to the supervisors supervisor and beg for someone who really knows the ins and outs of a solution to this.

**It's stupid question time!!! YAYYYYY!!!* LOL Sorry I KNOW this is a stupid question, really. But your post here seemed to imply........is there some way to see who in SL has bought your stuff?

Oh and in the mean time those damn griefer butt tards will put there complete inventory in ban boxes of stolen content so when they have there account banned again they will just get there new one on line and grab up that box full of stolen content and walk away merry as can be. Pisses me off.

Chris, just so you are aware, I did not agree to the terms they have in place today. I agree'd to the terms in 2003, which I am sure did not imply removing of intellectual property. So by those 'rules', 'terms', 'policy' in which I originally agreed to 6 years ago, my items should not have been purged. I am still even having troubles locating that specific 'policy' on any terms or policies listed on the Second Life web site.

Another note would be, that nobody asked if "Life" was fair, it's apparent that it's not, and your remark saying so was completely useless and a cause to take this thread off topic. Grow up and waste time elsewhere.

The above quote was what I was referring to.
possibly if he kept excel downloads of transactions
this is if he has sold things he built
or maybe friends
idk?

When was the last time you logged in before all of this happened? Unfortunately, the following is at the top of the TOS (and similar is on almost all various online TOS agreements):

"Linden Lab may amend this Agreement at any time in its sole discretion, effective upon posting the amended Agreement at the domain or subdomains of http://secondlife.com where the prior version of this Agreement was posted"

That means that if you have used the service at any time after a change was posted, you have actually agreed to the new TOS.

It does sort of suck that it works that way, but that is really how most of the internet stuff is.

Verizon does not care about the contract I signed 10 years ago.

OK....let's make it fair. Everyone in this thread can take a few months off from having that charge card billed for services, then come back and resume with all their stuff ready to go again. I personally, could use a break for a few months in this economy. That would be cool.

There is nothing wrong with pointing out that RL is unfair or that SL is probably more unfair. The answer to someone who values their "stuff" is to store it in a basic account, or hand it over to a friend. Still no guarantees. That answer is valuable in this thread. And your question was "is it fair?"

Then you were free at any time to stop using their services once the contract did change. The thread is back on track. It was entirely fair that you lose your stuff after you quit paying your bill. Do you want a pat on the head and a cookie now? You still have your "Intellectual property", it is in your head. The electrons representing your "property" were in LL's storage and they decided to get rid of them once you stopped paying your bill.

Or pay your bill.

Yeah - that too.

Not to overstate the obvious, but, it's not fair that accounts which have never paid for premium services didn't get purged, while premium accounts apparently did.

That's messed up.

And it was changed.

But Chance got caught up in it anyway.


Last I checked, when doing good business the customer is a pretty important guy.

OFFS. It's not a question of "fair", it's a question of stupid. If people were beating down Battery Street doors to become Premium members, it would be one thing, but even LL is hard-put to come up with a reason for anyone to become Premium except as a bizarre barrier to the privilege of paying them a pile of tier every month.

So, really, it's more like my cousin has a barn, and in one corner he'll let me keep stuff indefinitely for free, and in another, "premium" corner he'll charge me ten bucks a month to put it there, kick me in the ass every time he sees me, and throw the stuff out the first chance he gets. Now he wonders why the whole clan hasn't picked the "premium" corner.

In regards to parts of the TOS that might apply in this situation:

1.3 ..... You agree that your creation of Content is not in any way based upon any expectation of compensation from Linden Lab.

1.7 ... http://secondlife.com/corporate/billing.php
---- this above link is valid because the top of the TOS says:
"This offer is conditioned on your agreement to all of the terms and conditions contained in the Terms of Service, including your compliance with the policies and terms linked to (by way of the provided URLs) from this Agreement."
---- within that link above:
7..... If, for any reason, your credit card or other payment method cannot be charged or payment is withheld, your account will become dormant as if you had cancelled it. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Linden Lab is not obligated to reactivate or retain any cancelled account, and any effort to do so is at Linden Lab's sole discretion.


And, probably the most important one:
2.6 Linden Lab may suspend or terminate your account at any time, without refund or obligation to you.

Linden Lab has the right at any time for any reason or no reason to suspend or terminate your Account, terminate this Agreement, and/or refuse any and all current or future use of the Service without notice or liability to you. In the event that Linden Lab suspends or terminates your Account or this Agreement, you understand and agree that you shall receive no refund or exchange for any unused time on a subscription, any license or subscription fees, any content or data associated with your Account, or for anything else.

(that last bit of bolding is my addition)
.


ETA: This part seems pretty important and relevant here also:
3.3 Linden Lab retains ownership of the account and related data, regardless of intellectual property rights you may have in content you create or otherwise own.

You agree that even though you may retain certain copyright or other intellectual property rights with respect to Content you create while using the Service, you do not own the account you use to access the Service, nor do you own any data Linden Lab stores on Linden Lab servers (including without limitation any data representing or embodying any or all of your Content). Your intellectual property rights do not confer any rights of access to the Service or any rights to data stored by or on behalf of Linden Lab.


And then there is this very important piece:
5.3 All data on Linden Lab's servers are subject to deletion, alteration or transfer.

When using the Service, you may accumulate Content, Currency, objects, items, scripts, equipment, or other value or status indicators that reside as data on Linden Lab's servers. THESE DATA, AND ANY OTHER DATA, ACCOUNT HISTORY AND ACCOUNT NAMES RESIDING ON LINDEN LAB'S SERVERS, MAY BE DELETED, ALTERED, MOVED OR TRANSFERRED AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON IN LINDEN LAB'S SOLE DISCRETION.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT, NOTWITHSTANDING ANY COPYRIGHT OR OTHER RIGHTS YOU MAY HAVE WITH RESPECT TO ITEMS YOU CREATE USING THE SERVICE, AND NOTWITHSTANDING ANY VALUE ATTRIBUTED TO SUCH CONTENT OR OTHER DATA BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY, LINDEN LAB DOES NOT PROVIDE OR GUARANTEE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS (SUBJECT TO ANY UNDERLYING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THE CONTENT), ANY VALUE, CASH OR OTHERWISE, ATTRIBUTED TO ANY DATA RESIDING ON LINDEN LAB'S SERVERS.

YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT LINDEN LAB HAS THE RIGHT, BUT NOT THE OBLIGATION, TO REMOVE ANY CONTENT (INCLUDING YOUR CONTENT) IN WHOLE OR IN PART AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON OR NO REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE AND WITH NO LIABILITY OF ANY KIND.
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The very first part that they put in all caps is probably the only thing that really matters.

To most businesses maybe, but it does not appear that LL thinks that way.