Is this grounds for a class action suit

He is in pain from what I can tell, distraction leads to forgetting punctuation marks.

Its also harder to type standing up, especially if you are in pain standing.

Will, I have arthritis too, I know what you mean.

Does this work for shoes too?

Well, you make alot of valid points in your statement. However, the one thing I can't get past is this:

Several months prior to banning "hair". LL openly announced that they were calling in the FBI to consult concerning the legality of "hair" in Second Life. Once that happened, it was clear to me that "hair" was on it's way out. I warned a friend not to invest heavily into "hair" as it was soon going to be banned by SL. He disagreed, and said "They'll never ban gambling in SL". Consequently, he invested about 90,000 L's into equipment, which he only paritally recovered because within a month of his investment, the ban went into effect.

Look at it this way. When I first got into SL, I couldnt believe gambling even existed because I know how the states are in guarding THEIR gambling gig. If they thought they could get away with it, they'd ban church bingo too.

When you make an investment, conducting due dilligence (The investigation and evaluation of a management team's characteristics, investment philosophy, and terms and conditions prior to committing capital to the fund) falls upon YOU.

1. When I was first in SL, I already knew from day one casino gambling was going to end, before I even knew anything else.

2. When I heard the FBI was being called in, I knew the end was near.

3. When the ToS policy change concerning wagering came down, I was not suprised.

You make it sound as if you were pulled into a bait an switch, which partially, you may have been. However, I think (and this is just my opinion) that you did not conduct the proper due dilligence before investing such a large amount of money into an operation that was obviously on shaky ground at best.

As far as your tier being drained, I feel for your situation. One, you could stop paying, but you'd loose the islands, and the stetup fees as well, or secondly, you could do what others do. Turn them into other money making assests such as a mall, or RP sim, or whatever. You can waste your time posting your complaint here, or you could be busy working on a solution to your problem.

I dont mean to sound paticularly harsh, or place all of the blame on you, but I think your lack of due dilligence is what's most responsible for your situation.

Whats the "BE EVIL" Mantra for?

I think Linden Labs would have loved to keep Gambling open and get the money off Gamblers and Casino Owners.

But with the law changes they no longer could.

They sure as heck werent going to pay out hundreds of thousands of US dollars to compensate for a ban on centent they never officially endorced. Even if they could have afforded to.

Remember SL's stance is all Content is the Users Responsibility.

If they Ban the Escort Biz tommorrow they wont pay those Business owners back either.

Linden Labs isnt being Evil - Its just a Business Decision. Thats it.

.-- .... --- --. .. ...- . ... .- .-. .- ... .- ... ... ..--..

Well, regardless of what you say here are the facts:

a) $$ is not guaranteed. A lot of people seemed to understand that otherwise there would have been a major issue over this that involved reasonable people and not just dorks.

b) unless you are NOT talking about gambling there was warning with the ad ban. A ton of people saw it.

c) LL isn't going to buy your land back. I don't know why you think they should.

d) IRL if my business failed because we repaired Beta (or soon HD DVD) machines and they suddenly stop being made I couldn't expect Sony or whoever to buy my lot because they caused my business to fail. The same principle applies here...only gambling was halted for LEGAL reasons in which case it's a good thing LL stopped you before the FBI did!

Bottom line: build something else on your islands or sell them. Complaining like this won't help you.

Nice analogy, except that never happened. The woman in question suffered serious burns and had to have several skn grafts because McDonald's was keeping its coffee just a few degrees below the boiling point. There had been several previous cases that had been quietly settled before the famous one and the company still maintained their policy of keeping it that hot.

This urban myth has grown up around this case as an example of a ludicrous judgment for someone who was being stupid, but that isn't what really happened at all.

http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm

For Chilly, LL has no obligation to risk breaking the law for you, or even to risk having their payments blocked by credit card companies. You chose to invest in a risky venture and it didn't work out. It sucks, yeah, but life is not always fair. Suck it up, find a new use for your islands or sell them, and go on with your life.

You neglected to "imagine" that months ago LL mandated that people are no longer allowed to ADVERTISE that they rent land out. Pretty clear handwriting on the wall for anyone bothering to "see" it.

Also...

I see less difference between gambling in a virtual casino... and running a virtual casino.

Virtual casino operators rolled the dice well for a while, and now they've crapped out.

Sell your islands... amusingly enough... if you click on new posts, then this one is right below yours

/114/50/202849/1.html

About the official list of "business opportunities" on secondlife.com, they did still list casino owner and lottery operator after the ban went into place. I thought about posting about it before because I thought it was funny.

It's pretty obvious that the timing of the announcement was due to reasons beyond their control, but they could at least provide some answers to people trying to run legitimate gaming businesses. LL describes the extremes of the possible punishments for people who violate the policy, but refuses to answer simple questions like "Is this specific game banned or not?". There are a lot of games in the grey area between the banned random games and the allowed skill games, and so far, LL hasn't said anything about any of them.

I guess in the end really I would have expected a tiny bit of respect. And maybe even some answers to some questions. And YES some type of apology.

Instead I recieved the cold shoulder and a f-you attituded from LL all the while watching everyone else continue to operate.

Yes I do think the right thing for them to do would be a grace period to re-tool things and or a buy back.

I actually condidered myself an asset to SL. I did the best I could and provided the very finest.

I understood the day would come but to be slammed down kicked and then spit on ... that I did not expect.

Linden Labs will not even communicate with me.

that is what I mean by

"BE EVIL"

you will know it when you taste it ... until then good luck.

Just know in your heart who it is that is running this world, it is not the residents it is Linden Labs who has NO respect for the individuals who make up what Second Life really is and that is the community. They will walk over and care not anything for an individual in this game. They have lost thier soul.

I FULLY understand there are things they have to do to keep SL alive and I support that. Yes even the ban on gambling. What I do NOT support is the callus way they will meet those ends and the way they will treat people when doing so.

They do not have to operate in that way. They could do WHAT IS RIGHT in so many areas where they choose not to. They can accomplish all these goals and NOT be evil. But they choose not to.

this is thier motto:

"BE EVIL"

If anyone wants to contact me about this thread feel free I WILL answer questions.

I am done with this thread. At the very least some will see here the true nature of the beast who will support you until you are no longer of any use to them and then they will toss you away.

You may be next you might not. It's all a gamble, just remember what the motto of the one you are playing with is:

"BE EVIL"

THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE COMMUNITY MUCH LESS ANY INDIVIDUALS IN HERE NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY ADDED TO SECOND LIFE.

Bottom Line.

Ok fair enough. I'm sorry Willy.

Chilly, as a former casino operator I would think you'd be familiar with the slogan, "The House always wins." LL is the House. Rather surprised you didn't realize it before this happened.

Ditto - My lower spine looks like its crusted in barnacles in x-rays, no to mention chronic muscle spasms. I vote for giving him a pass on the punctuation. If you don't suffer from serious back pain you don't understand. It's BRUTAL. It will make you crazy. If the guy skips some periods and commas, it's not that big a deal.

I don't agree with him, though, because I don't think he's drawing the distinction between poor customer service and actionable behavior. The OP didn't come in saying that he was getting terrible customer service. He probably is - this is LL, after all. I would totally support LL giving a one month break to casino owners to re-tool their land. Instead the OP came in screaming about a ridiculous class action law suit and repeating this "BE EVIL" mantra, which makes no sense. LL isn't being evil; it's making bad customer service decisions. I suspect they considered something like this, but then counted the number of casinos and calculated the amount of revenue they would lose and decided to not respond. Even if LL was being evil, you can't sue for that. He's just not making his point in a way that makes people want to be sympathetic.

You may have a case (based on LL's representations) but you need to talk to a real life lawyer. As it stands, talking to the forums is getting you nothing but stress--and things you say here could come back to haunt you if you do decided to sue.

It's loose/loose.

I don't know Chilly, it looks like to me, they are doing the right thing. They are billing you for services they provide you. Namely the use of their servers for your land. If you don't want to pay for their services, sell your land. Why should they give you special treatment? Special treatment is what you are asking for when you want them to buy back your land or give you free rent.

The rules changed.

Life happens.

Shit happens.

Get over it and move on.

This is true. Carl has a very good point

Chilly call a lawyer.

We are just giving our opinion that you are being unrealisitc.

It doesnt mean the Law agrees with us.

Sounds more like they gave you an answer, it just wasn't what you wanted to hear.

I like to gamble now and then, I have been to vegas on quite a few occasions over the last 10 years. However i would not loose sleep if gambleing was made illegal in NV, and the casinos owners were left with huge white elephants. After all they were not set up to entertain me, they were there to take my money.

I would guess that chilly's objectives were the same.

and you have "a rental agreement on those islands to sell hair." to show ?

Oh come on.

If LL apologizes, then they're admitting that they erred.

LL respects that residents can and will USE ADMISSIONS OF FAULT MADE BY LL against them.

They did what they had to... and they're not talking about it. So your pride stings, you're angry, you feel betrayed, that's understandable.

Self preservation is not being "EVIL". You're reading too much into it.

You are wooed buy a piece of property in Podunk, USA that had been promoted to you as prime casino land.

You notice that the US passes a ban on Podunk casinos, but it isn't enforced in Podunk.

Then the Podunk authorities ban casino advertising.

Then, almost four months ago, websites begin to leak that the FBI is investigating the legality of Podunk's casinos:

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11533-fbi-investigates-virtual-casinos-in-second-life.html

Would bystanders have grounds to laugh and point when the investor is shocked and outraged that gambling was banned?

What would the outraged say to the judge when the judge pointed out that the money they are trying to get back was spent in the creation of an illegal business? What might happen if the judge says "Oh, so you freely admit, under oath, that you were planning and executing an illegal casino in direct disobedience to the law".

When the judge turns the legal system back onto the outraged... THEN can we laugh and point? After all, the only excuse is that it wasn't a real casino to make real money... but... then again... are you suing for L$?

This is me, laughing and pointing. IF someone offers to sell you prime land for creating crystal meth labs, take some advice... pass on it. You won't be able to get your money back for that, either. Ignorance...*cough* of the law isn't an excuse.

Errr.... yeah... and? Last I checked, they own it...

sitting haha okay that's funny lol

no actually sitting is something that people with realy horrible backs cant do much of in many cases ^^

lying is also a pain and your spouse usually kicks you outa the bed and that's when you go and sleep standing up..

anyhow yeah sitting not on the list of comfortable positions ^^

LL has bought back land before...do a search on ' telehub land buy-back ' ...I was here thru all that ordeal as was Chilly.