Has anyone read the TOS Recently?

Now I am going to try to keep my remarks to myself, but I wanted to share a few paragraphs of the current tos, this is word for word, and I will try to keep it in context so nothing is obscured, some of them maybe cut for space, but please go read it in its entirety from the TOS.

2.3 You need to use an account name in Second Life which is not misleading, offensive or infringing. You must select and keep secure your account password.

You must choose an account name to identify yourself to Linden Lab staff (your "Account Name", which will also serve as the name for the graphical representation of your body in the Service (such representation, an "Avatar". You may not select as your Account Name the name of another person to the extent that could cause deception or confusion; a name which violates any trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right; a name which may mislead other users to believe you to be an employee of Linden Lab; or a name which Linden Lab deems in its discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. Linden Lab reserves the right to delete or change any Account Name for any reason or no reason. You are fully responsible for all activities conducted through your Account or under your Account Name.

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.

4.1 You agree to abide by certain rules of conduct, including the Community Standards and other rules prohibiting illegal and other practices that Linden Lab deems harmful.

(iv) take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content as determined by Linden Lab at its sole discretion that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

5.3 All data on Linden Lab's servers are subject to deletion, alteration or transfer.

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.

5.5 Linden Lab's liability to you is expressly limited, to the extent allowable under applicable law.

IN NO EVENT SHALL LINDEN LAB OR ANY OF ITS SHAREHOLDERS, PARTNERS, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, SUBSIDIARIES, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS, LICENSEES OR DISTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, ARISING (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE) OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICE (INCLUDING ITS MODIFICATION OR TERMINATION), THE LINDEN SOFTWARE, YOUR ACCOUNT (INCLUDING ITS TERMINATION OR SUSPENSION) OR THIS AGREEMENT, WHETHER OR NOT LINDEN LAB MAY HAVE BEEN ADVISED THAT ANY SUCH DAMAGES MIGHT OR COULD OCCUR AND NOTWITHSTANDING THE FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY REMEDY. IN ADDITION, IN NO EVENT WILL LINDEN LAB'S CUMULATIVE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR DIRECT DAMAGES OF ANY KIND OR NATURE EXCEED FIFTY DOLLARS (U.S. $50.00). Some jurisdictions do not allow the foregoing limitations of liability, so to the extent that any such limitation is impermissible, such limitation may not apply to you. You agree that Linden Lab cannot be held responsible or liable for anything that occurs or results from accessing or subscribing to the Service.

(correct me if I'm wrong, but this includes monthly service fees)

http://secondlife.com/corporate/billing.php

8. If your account is cancelled, Linden Lab may attempt to sell your virtual land in order to satisfy your existing obligations; in which case a resale fee not exceeding the land sale proceeds will be charged to you.

In the event that Linden Lab suspends or terminates your Account, you understand and agree that: (a) Linden Lab may attempt to sell at auction any "virtual land" (i.e. the instances of simulated land associated with your Account) that you hold in Second Life, and that any money received from such auctions will be applied to satisfy your existing obligations to Linden Lab and others, as determined by Linden Lab in its sole discretion; and (b) in addition to any money that you owe, you will be charged the lesser of (i) the aggregate amount received from such auctions and (ii) one hundred dollars ($100) (the "Resale Fee" as reimbursement for costs associated with the resale of virtual land. Any money remaining from the sale of land after the repayment of your obligations and the Resale Fee may be returned to you. Notwithstanding the foregoing, no money will be returned to you in the event that your Account is terminated due to suspicions of fraud, violations of other laws or regulations, or deliberate disruptions to or interference with the Service.

This one is kinda confusing, basically I think its saying LL MAY choose to return money to you after they sell your land, if it is over the fees you currently owe, for example if you own an island, can't pay the monthly fee, you get terminated, they sell the land, and they MAY return the extra money from the sale to you, minus an extra 100 dollars for resale fees.

As a final note, straight from the community standards.
http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php

5. Indecency
Second Life is an adult community, but Mature material is not necessarily appropriate in all areas (see Global Standards below). Content, communication, or behavior which involves intense language or expletives, nudity or sexual content, the depiction of sex or violence, or anything else broadly offensive must be contained within private land in areas rated Mature (M). Names of Residents, objects, places and groups are broadly viewable in Second Life directories and on the Second Life website, and must adhere to PG guidelines.

Now according to LLs own words, anything that is offensive is allowed so long as it is contained in private land mature areas. So I believe islands would satisfy this requirement.

Now I have read the tos top to bottom, and I have tried to find one thing that secures anyone from anything, copyright infringement, anything in the community standards, anything that helps keep you the customer safe from everything right up to loss of money due to computer error, and all I can find is things like this: YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT LINDEN LAB HAS THE RIGHT, BUT NOT THE OBLIGATION

I encourage anyone, to correct my opinions stated here, I will edit this post to reflect corrections, but the way it looks to me, this TOS does next to nothing. It guarantees nothing, it secures nothing, your account and your money are at the sole discretion of LL to do with as they will.

which is why LL vs Bragg will be watched very closely.

So very true, the judge has already declaired this TOS is not legally binding. I really wanted to show why I think that the decision is correct.

i agree since joining SL a year ago i have seen the ToS revamped 3-4(?) times all slanted in LL favor and grow more and more contradictory in terms. i said so in aanother post that many may hate the guy, but thank him for bringing to light what LL has been doin inthe dark: screwing its residents and makin profit at it. God Bless American Buisness

It's designed to cover their asses. To everyone's face; "What you make is your intellectual property. LL respects that."

Behind your back; "If we suddenly decide to ban you/delete your creations without just cause, refer yourself to the TOS where it says we can do whatever we want."

That happened to a certain hair designer if I remember rightly, although she did eventually get back into SL. The idea is just to make sure that if they ever get fickle or change their mind about something, they can say "Well the TOS said..." even though to our faces they are saying something completely different.

I am overjoyed to see this incredibly one sided TOS being contested.

It is a measure of how important SL can become to people's lives that we are even having this discussion and other threads in this forum.

The TOS would be fine for a game, like World of Warcraft. It is actually OK in SL as long as LL uses it carefully and judiciously to deal with the unexpected problems and outrages that maleficent minds can come up with and no-one else could foresee. It is unfortunate that that is no longer what is happening. The Daniel Linden blog post, taken at its word, establishes a police state that most residents will only live in as long as it takes some competitor to come up with a viable alternative to SL. At Internet speed, that will not take long, IMO.

VR platforms have been proved by this experiment to be too important to be left in the hands of a latter-day San Francisco KGB.

My impression of Mitch Kapor and Philip Rosedale is that they really don't want to preside over the equivalent of the former People's Democratic Republic in east Germany, which started emptying out as soon as people were able to leave it and which promptly collapsed.

The judge only ruled on the arbitration/jurisdiction language, said it was rubbish, allowing the case to be tried in PA. The document as a whole is still intact. For now. Many sections of it will undoubtedly be tested at trial. It's going to be an interesting case to follow.

Still, I think that ..

Even if the judge were to decide the entire TOS is nonsense - that doesnt mean he would make it void.

Only Void for that case, and setting a precedent (mainly in that state)

Its not like a law being declared unconstitutional. A judge doesnt just strike down coroporate contracts like that.

Well, that is actually basically true.

Respecting your intellectual property means they won't steal it from you or copy it, it doesn't mean they have to store it for you forever.

If you write a song specifically for me, in particular, to sing, does that mean that I have to sing it for you on demand or otherwise I'm depriving you of your IP?

Pretty standard "hold harmless agreement". And we all accepted it by joining Second Life. I'm not particularly happy with a lot of the "we are not responsible" and "we owe you nothing" parts of the TOS. But I did read it before signing in my avatar and accepted it. What's the beef?

Does anyone read every TOS and ELU they agree to word for word? It seems to me that these are simply things tacked on for legal reasons but which everyone knows are rarely read.

The SL TOS (which I have read) is basically LL covering their collective backside to protect them from various potential legal pitfalls. The important thing regarding the current debate is that it clearly differentiates between a public PG sim and a public Mature sim.

The recent blog posting seems not to differentiate, and that is a major problem.

What you make today is your own intellectual property tomorrow. What you make today is not guaranteed by Linden Lab to be present on their systems tomorrow.