Property Rights vs. Land Harassment and Coercion

Coercion - the use of express or implied threats or reprisal or other intimidating behavior that puts a person in immediate fear of the consequences in order to compel that person to act against his or her will.

Harass - To irritate or torment persistently. To disturb persistently; torment, as with troubles or cares; bother continually; pester; persecute.

I am a land and business owner in SL and my advertising business is just one of my many ventures here. I strive to run all of my businesses in an ethical, honorable fashion, and expect others to do the same. I even make it a point to put ALL of my ad land for sale, at a reasonable price, so that if any resident doesn't want the billboard there, they are welcome to remove it by purchasing the land it is on. I price it only high enough to cover the cost of finding, purchasing and replacing a new parcel and sign. I have on many occasions traded landowners for other parcels in other sims, to do what I can to accomodate them. This can be time consuming, but I believe it is what a responsible advertising company should do. But I have noticed lately that there is a concerted effort by a SL "beautification" group to use what I call "land coercion" to infringe upon not only my property rights, but the rights of thousands of other SL businesspeople.

I know there are those in SL that don't care for billboards. They seem to want some pastoral scene before their eyes at all times, no matter which way they turn in Second Life. And some of what is put out, that passes for advertising IS just ridiculous. The oversized, spinning, spamming, shouting, and landmark auto-delivering prims are counter-productive, and will sell little product for the companies being advertised. My advertising companys always strives to create an advertising presence that is both tasteful and low impact on the sim. But I don't believe any group has the right to try to harass, coerce or intimidate ANYONE else into removing ANYTHING, including ads, from their property, nor should they have the right to curtail anyone elses business in SL.

The real issue is that if the advertiser buys the land to place his or her ad, their parcel should NOT be encroached upon by any group or resident. To do so is patently against the community standards in Second Life, and for a group to advocate this, as this one obviously has, is reprehensible. I am NOT referring to placing blocking prims on land that you own entirely to block the view of something you dont care to see....I am referring to the now common practice by this beautification group of placing the root prim of a HUGE build on a small parcel, so that the rest of their "ad blocker" overlaps onto the surrounding 12-15 parcels. In many cases, the blockers have just been dropped on other residents land with that has no autoreturn set, so this group nor it's members even OWN land there.

Advertising is a fact of life folks, in the real world and in SL. The beautification group that is griefing advertisers is forgetting a very basic tenet of SL. When you buy and own land, you are allowed to do whatever you wish with that property as long as you do not conflict with either the TOS or the community standards as defined by Linden Labs. Unfortunately, this group does not see it this way. They seem to believe that THEY define, and should be able to mandate, what is attractive to all SL residents.

They seem to believe that if they see something they dont like, they somehow have the right to force the person that owns it, to change it regardless if they even own land in the area. Effectively, their positition is that if they dont think it is "attractive" by their standards, like an ad, they somehow have the right to demand the owner change it, and if the owner wont change or remove it, then they have the right to harass them until they do. If this is the case, where will it stop? This persecution is only one step away from rationalizing griefing because someone doesn't like your house, or store, or car, anything you can see in second life, your name, nationality, groups you belong to, or your real life race.

Additionally, this group seems to have the belief that if you own land, other residents should be able to tell you how you may USE that land, how and if you may divide, keep or resell the land. Often, ad parcels are created from larger parcels. That is also a fact of Second Life and is just good business. It is not cost effective to put a three prim sign on a 512 parcel, so the parcel is sub-divided and sold as smaller parcels. This makes advertising cost effective, and makes the cost of the things you buy in SL reasonable. Imagine if we were forced to ONLY put an ad on a 512m or larger parcel, and it cost L$5000 for the land for every billboard, how much would the products being advertised there cost the consumer? If this ever happens you wont see the end of advertising, what you will see is 117 prim mega billboards, with hundreds, perhaps thousands of ads on them.

Commerce is also a fact of life in Second Life, just as in the real world. Commerce is what drives advertising in both worlds. And like in the real world there are both consumers and producers. There are thousands of businesses in SL and most of them wish to market and sell their products. As a matter of fact, many of the calm pastoral environments that billboard haters seem to want to enjoy would not even exist without the creative talents of thousands of creative people.

In most cases, homeowners dont build their own house, furniture, waterfall, or fountain, or script the sound of twittering birds, or create the plants for landscaping. These are made by talented builders, scripters and designers, many of whom have thriving businesses in Second Life. These businesses need to advertise their products and services to continue to grow. It is the companies that advertise that are the creators of all the neat things you use and enjoy every day in SL. Without effective ways to market their products and services, they can't be in business...and they ARE the heart and soul of what SL is. Every ad you see, represents another person or company that is producing and creating in Second Life, not just idly sitting back and consuming.

I am very sure that not all residents of SL like advertising, but all should agree that no group, even if they hide behind a seemingly altruistic purpose, should be allowed to infringe on your right as a resident of SL to build and create on land you bought and paid for. So perhaps this is not a feature request, but a request for Linden Labs to actually give advertisers the same land protections as any other landowner in SL and to stop this harassment by this group.

Last but not least, they have a name in the real world for groups that attempt to coerce and intimidate others to compel them to do what the group wishes, for the group's own benefit. They call that Organized Crime.

Your crappy "advertising" destroys land value and has a massive negative affect on my business and enjoyment of SL. Nonetheless, I too find the tactics of this group a little questionable.While I generally agree with their goal their tactics: the use of banlists, harassment of land cutters, those ridiculous tall green rectangles that make a plot impossible to navigate are all methods that I find questionable at best.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,
With a pink hotel, a boutique,
And a swinging hot spot.
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

~ Joni Mitchell, "Big Yellow Taxi"

These groups do not endorse the 16 meter plots with billboards on them. You would have a SL advertising products as far as the eye can see. Some envision a more pristine SL. I believe if these groups weren't so active and aggressively opposing the ad farmers - we would be overrun with this 'quick-buck business.

You buy a small 16m square and put spinning, flashing, obnoxious signs that advertise anything from anybody. You place these horrid things in the middle of pristine areas, making them look as ugly as possible. You then offer to sell the land for 100X its value or else you'll continue to force your neighbors to see your ads.

The neighbors respond by putting up prims to block their view of your ads. If the prims go into your land a little bit, then you need to buy bigger parcels of land. It's courteous to not encrouch a prim on the neighbor's land, sure. But it's likewise courteous not to bother them with flashing spinning ads for Pornhalla or Spanky's Wet Couch, either.

If you can sweep their stuff, then do it. Otherwise, tough cookies. Just as you have the right to put whatever you want on YOUR land, so do your neighbors. You took advantage of a loophole to build your business where people clearly didn't want it. They found a way to close that loophole. Turnabout is, after all, fair play.

I see ads in some places, and they fit right in with the surroundings, no problem. Other times they don't and really create an eyesore. An advertiser has the right to do what he wants with his land, but sometimes I think can be more sensitive to the location, and tailor his business accordingly.

If you were truly as kind and considerate a resident as you're trying to portray yourself to be, you'd simply leave the plot not marked for sale and let legitimate land owners on the same sim buy it from you at cost, meaning what you paid for it, not at a 10-20 multiple.

You happened to cut land into ad plots on the previous mainland sim I had land on, and what you priced your ad plot at was more than the price of the original parcel, let alone the little chunk you carved out for yourself to put three huge stacked ads on.

If these groups are causing you any distress, that's nothing compared to what the ad parcel owners are doing to legitimate land owners. I suggest you learn to live with it, just like you're making everyone else live with your eyesores.

Rock on Kitty!

It appears from recent policy notices on the blog that LL is in fact ceding community standards to the "community" or perhaps more accurately, the communities.

Now it seems we've two communities with diametrically opposed desires as neighbors - shades of the real world "we need development", "we need trees and owls" dilemma. Interesting.

For one, I don't chop up land, I did that once, a year ago, when I was a noob, and have not done it since, there is no need for me to...I buy land that is already subdivided up by other residents...as for selling land that I have searched out, purchased, reset the perms and pix on, then spent the time putting my business tools on...I am happy to do it, but I will not sell it for the same cost I paid for two reasons...

First, there is a cost to me, to find the land, to set it up, to deed it to group...I spend a couple hours a day buying these parcels just to maintain my ad network...not to mention the several HUNDRED hours it took to script my own advertising system...why should I absorb that cost, just so someone else can buy the land?

Secondly...the land was for sale, when I bought it...if the neighboring residents wanted it, why didn't they buy it before I did?..if they wanted to protect their view, they had the opportunity....why should I, once i have gone to all the work of creating my network, sell it for the same thing I paid for it?...last I checked, people in sl...including many of the rest of the folks that are flaming me here, are in your own businesses to make money.

First of all, my billboards dont spin, they dont flash, they dont move at all, they cycle the textures on the surface

Secondly, there are seldom any "pristine" areas in sl...since when land is first created and thus pristine...it has no houses, or roads, or swimming pools, or anything else on them...THAT is the pristine condition of the land...so according to your own statement, the first person that puts a house or build of any kind is just as guilty of destroying the pristine condition of the land.

Third...you state "The neighbors respond by putting up prims to block their view of your ads. If the prims go into your land a little bit, then you need to buy bigger parcels of land. It's courteous to not encrouch a prim on the neighbor's land, sure. But it's likewise courteous not to bother them with flashing spinning ads for Pornhalla or Spanky's Wet Couch, either."....and you couldn't be more wrong...putting up prims that encroach on anyone's land is not JUST discourteous...it is ALSO against the TOS and community standards as put forth by the lindens...that is why, when someone places a prim that is centered on their land, but overlapping onto yours, the lindens recommend that you file an abuse report if they will not remove it...and in every instance, the lindens have removed the encroaching prim...

Fourth...I took advantage of no loophole to build my business...I merely bought land and used it...exactly what loophole would that be? The old "spend money to build your business" loophole? And stating that "to build your business where people clearly didn't want it" is patently ridiculous...The group that is placing the giant prims, do not OWN land there, they are placing their blockers on land they do not own, so that it encroachs on MY land, and I DO want my billboard there. In other words, they have no financial interest in that area at all. I do...and I am the landowner. As for the people that DO own the surrounding land, why should they have a right to say it is unwanted, yet I do not have an equal right to say it IS wanted...because my parcel is smaller? In that case, your neighbor that owns more land than you do should be able to tell you what to do on your land...does that make sense?

Fifth...you state that "They found a way to close that loophole. Turnabout is, after all, fair play"...yeah, they found a way, but it is hardly fairplay, they are in violation of the TOS and community standards when they do it...that is your definition of fair?

What none of you are admitting to, is that the entire situation is caused by people that want to use...or rather have me NOT use...land that they do not own, and didn't purchase when it was for sale when they had the chance to buy it for the same price I paid. They wanted the benefit of the "view" without paying the price for the view...now, they want the view back, still without paying for it.

Interesting comment from the owner and operator of the original landbot...

Temporal, why are you whining here? If I understand you right, you are opposed to harassment and coercion. Your signs... and those in the same business as you are intended by their very nature to "harass".. oh excuse me... I mean "persuade". The problem is that those in your business take a beautiful sim with good property values and ruin it with spinning ads. So in order to rescue it... you are coercing those in the sim to buy you out.

I think ads should be allowed in moderation. Unfortunately there is no way to stop them or limit them right now. Its terrible when you have a giant row of spinning signs as far as you can see. My friend recently had to sell her land because literally half the sim was chopped up into ad space, and yes even YOU had some of those ads.

It would be better to set aside certain spots in a sim for advertising, rather than people having to worry about ads, they can know that the ads will be in certain places. In RL this is called Zoning, because people believe the same thing in RL, that too much advertising is bad.

Temporal, if you really want fairness, then push for zoning, but don't complain here that people aren't treating you nicely after you build a big sign in the face.

I agree...there are two factions...those that would be happiest being allowed to do what they want on their land, while expecting that any resident that owns land within sight of where they happen to be at that moment, leave the land undeveloped. The ones that want SL to be "pristine", or "untouched"...if they were to get their wish, we would all be flying over blank landscapes, which I am sure would be entertaining for the first few minutes. Then, when there is nothing to do, nothing to buy, nothing to SEE but grass and rocks...how many people would stay IN Second Life.

And there are those that pursue commerce and creativity in Second Life...How many of the people advocating "trees and owls" can MAKE the requisite trees or owls?...And as long as there is one resident that cant make everything they want in SL, there will be people that are willing to make it and sell it...this is human nature. One observation that I will make is that no human civilization on earth has ever left the environment untouched. Mankind has a need to build and create, and not everyones idea of creation is the same...

On the contrary...I DO NOT want people to buy me out...I want to keep every parcel in my advertising network, since it takes hours and hours to find them and buy them...I would prefer that they leave them unpurchased so that I can keep my business intact.

As for zoning sims, the idea of zoning a sim for commercial and residential areas is a great idea...as a matter of fact, I think that the lindens could create entire regions that people could purchase, or buy portions of them from someone that does. The owner could, since they own the region, mandate whether there can be ads on the land...or if there could be any commercial builds or ventures at all. And people could purchase their own land on these regions that are zoned strictly for residential, "no commmerce allowed" areas. I think that is a simply brilliant concept. Of course, it's been done for the last several years.

You may wish to look up estates...or maybe you simply call them "islands", which are regions that are zoned, that can limit the purchase of land for commercial purposes...

You are making fun of it because you want the complete freedom to do whatever you want. In RL this isn't possible because the land owners beside you have rights as well over their neighbors. Its what zoning is for. Right now people have no expectation at all, but they hope they ad signs don't come near them. With zoning, you get some of what you want, Temporal, and they get some of what they want. And the actual advertisers know that ad space is limited and will pay more for that too.

What's not to love about zoning?

Then file your abuse report and be done with it. Me, I see nothing wrong with landowners putting up blinds on their property to keep your "allowable use of your land" from being visible to them on theirs. Their prim overlaps a little onto your land? Something tells me that the Lindens, who allow everyone under the sun to use up MY prim allocations in the form of landbots, aren't going to moved to action anytime soon. But I'll even cede that it's unfair to take up your space, so they should pull back to their own land. I'm an honest gent.

However, if your space is boxed in and even completely surrounded by phantom prims, then that's too bad for you. The TOS guarantees you access to your land - it doesn't guarantee you visibility. So long as you can reach your land on foot and air, your neighbors are quite in their rights to a) maintain their property values by hiding an eyesore and b) keeping the appearance of their land the way they want it.

Yes, advertising is important. But I don't think it's all that important ingame though. I've never bought anything in SL because I saw a sign for it. I mostly use the search feature, though it isn't too reliable these days. Stumbling onto a sign as a method of finding what I am looking for is even worse though so I don't think highly of it. Having "For Sale" signs over land that is available is understandable, as are signs in front of businesses. But SL doesn't need 1000000 cubes advertising Lee's Hong Kong in the middle of a fantasy forest in Griffin. If your business model requires you to ruin the appearance of a sim for everyone else, all for your own personal gain, don't be surprised that your neighbors oppose you.

Shockwave...please read my original post...it does not address walls put up by neighbors...I dont have any issues with someone placing a blocker on THIER LAND that remains on THEIR LAND...that is that landowner's right. I even say so in my post.

What I do have an issue with is a group that DOES NOT OWN LAND in that sim, area, or on an adjoining parcel, that is placing a giant ad blocker by placing it on a third residents parcel...so that it ecroaches on my land...did you not understand that?...

I am not making fun of zoning...I am merely saying in a roundabout way that it already exists in SL...on estates...As for zoning in real life, you misunderstand something about the concept. You state that in real life zoning works because "the land owners beside you have rights as well over their neighbors". This is not true, your neighbors have no individual rights over your land, no individual can tell you what to do or not do with your land... in real life, zoning is regulated and enforced by the local, regional or federal goverment, not by your neighbors. In SL, the lindens have not created any government. The grid is, for purposes of commerce, an anarchy for the most part. The TOS and the community standards are designed to regulate personal interaction.

"in real life, zoning is regulated and enforced by the local, regional or federal goverment, not by your neighbors"

Temporal... those neighbors are the ones that push for and help enforce zoning. Your business is awful because you have no limits on it. Anarchy, you said. That's terrible, and you like it that way. You don't offer anyone any solutions, you're just complaining that people don't like you and block your ads. I suggested a solution; do you have anything else, or would you just prefer to complain?

I don't know about others, but I generally teleport everywhere and do not see the signs. If I am in an open area with many of them, lag seems high, and it is so ugly I leave anyway. I don't think I have ever bought anything because I saw it on a sign. I use search. The only efect that signs seem to have is to drive people to move from mainland to estate land. The businesses paying for the signs would probably be better served by finding a more efficient way to advertise.

Once again, I think that zoning is a great idea...and again, it is already in place, in many areas of SL...as for neighbors pushing for and enforcing zoning, that is again inaccurate...in real life, your neighbors are able to push for zoning by virtue of their vote. They VOTE on individual zoning issues and help enforce zoning by electing the public servants that enforce the issues that pass. Again, there is no way to vote in SL for public servants...there is a way to suggest the idea of zoning in mainland sims, by way of a feature suggestion. If there is such a feature suggestion I am happy to support it. I will be happy to place my signs where they are allowed to be, as I do now.

I personally do not care for anarchy...since that is what has been creating the environment that allows the group that is griefing the advertisers to thrive. They are not stopped from their activities because anarchy DOES exist.

So how preytell is this group able to rez something on that person's land without their permission? Have you mentioned to this third resident that the group is using their land and their prim allocation? Or is the landowner unconcerned since they are opposing you and is giving them permission to do so? How is it that you've garnered an organized opposition like this? That it's a group and not an individual opposing you is irrelevant.

It still doesn't change a basic truth -- the TOS guarantees you access to your land, not visibility. And nobody guarantees you success in your business, whatever business it may be. As for your black and white view that it's trees and owls or factories on every corner, that's absurd. Also, for the record, your advertising biz doesn't create anything either. Littering the landscape with useless ads doesn't create squat and doesn't help anyone who is looking for something, and doesn't help the SL businesses either. If I'm looking for a Glaive, I'm not going to zoom around the world and cross my fingers in hopes that I stumble upon an ad for it.

At some point you'll need to decide if having an ad in that neck of the woods is worth the aggravation or not. Surely your energies are better used elsewhere.

They are able to rez it on tens of hundreds of residents parcels, simply because those owners do not have their individual autoreturns activated. To police this, to track down every land owner that doesnt know his land is being used without his permission, is not my place...and is impractical, when the issue is one group that is advocating to it's membership that they do this.

And it is not me that has an organized opposition...they have targeted all of the advertisers in SL, they do this in hundreds of places, regardless of who owns the land, or who owns the ad...it is not targeted towards me individually. And certainly my advertising business does not create anything...it is a service that supports those that do...and a service is a viable business, every bit as much as one that creates tangible products, especially in a world where EVERYTHING is just code on a server...there is no real tangible product. But I did create the billboards, the networked billboard system, I create many of the ads, and I created the advertising network itself....

So yes..I will keep filing abuse reports against them...and suggest to other advertisers that they do the same, since that is the right thing to do. I just find it strange that so few people that have responded here, actually read and understood my original post...but have instead chosen to attack on their own personal likes and dislikes, not whether the behavior of this group is right or wrong. If someone came and put giant prims on YOUR land, or placed a giant prim that covered your entire parcel, and home, or business, or park, or swimming pool...I am sure that you would be filing abuse reports immediately..AND condemning the griefer that covered YOUR land...why, when I do the same...do you denigrate me for playing the game within the rules, and asking that others do the same?

Then tell the landowners that their land is being abused and how to fix it. The effort is just another cost of doing business, like it or not. No, it's not your job, but since the abuse is affecting you and you alone, you are the one who must address it.