pwnt.
^_^

As for the defense of Xaphon: a CEO of a major corporation can not just sell a company jet and pocket the proceeds. Even if we pretend for a second that this was some glorious and majestic corporate takeover of a rival corporation, then the proceeds of that takeover were inappropriately liquidated and embezzled. Either way you cut it, he’s a worthless twit. Good riddance.

Just because the TOS doesn’t explicity state that “users who take group land and sell it without the group’s consent will be banned”, doesn’t mean it’s right and justifiable. If there weren’t any laws against murder, that wouldn’t make killing everyone in sight a morally just thing to do.

All you people with this retarded petition are saying, “Hey, it’s okay to do whatever horribly immoral things you want in SL, as long as the TOS lets it slide.” I hope that every person who signs this petition has all of their land stolen from them, to see how it feels. The Lindens took action against a user at their own discretion based on whatever reasons they have, and they have the right to do it. Who the hell do you people think you are to disrespect that authority? Sure, it’s a community-driven game, the Lindens aren’t perfect, and everyone has their protests, but you all forget that you aren’t entitled to any freedoms in SL.

I’m not trying to defend the Spacemonkeys either, because they were obviously not too bright to just make everyone officers. However, just because they made a mistake doesn’t mean Xaphon is a faultless saint who should be able to get away with it. If you accidentally leave your keys in your unlocked car, and your car gets stolen, no court is going to say, “Sorry, you left your keys in the car, you lose.” In that light, yes, both parties screwed up, but I guess the Lindens believed that Xepher’s deliberately taking advantage of a loophole was worse than the Spacemonkey’s mistake. That’s their decision to make, no one else’s, and nobody here has a right to appeal.

But it doesn’t matter if the people in the stories are assholes, and deserve to die, and are wasted pieces of server space. There has to be due process, a publicly-explain policy, and a consistency of that policy when the Lindens intervene in group land. We’re not hearing that. We’re seeing that Lindens grab land, well, because it’s their servers. They pretend all this stuff about how it’s our world and our imagination and stuff, but it comes to naught in these cases. There is much hype in the media interviews by Phil in particular about “land ownership” and “land barons” but in fact, it’s absolutely worthless, even when you pay tier, when the Lindens come to seize it.

The characters and actions of those from whom the land is seized may not be above reproach. Maybe they are scumbags. Maybe the people flipping Abuse Reports on them are scumbags. But even scumbags must have recourse to fairness, impartiality, and a due process — otherwise the whole thing looks like it is just looks like a social Darwinist elitist Metaversal grab.

I’m reminded of the celebrated Neal Cassady character in “On the Road,” who once explained to Jack Kerouac how the world works. “It’s all a big grab from Washington to Moscow.”

Ciao Xaphon.

BTW. I bought Anshe’s parcel and gave it back to the Monks. If the Lindens come though with the rest, you accomplished nothing. Try again when you get another credit card =).

I am sure we have not heard the end of Old Xaphon.

Walker is right, we do not have private land ownership rights protected in SL as much as content-creators have their IP protected to the extent they do. This is why there may have to be war between sandboxers (creative-content kings) and settlers (land barons and the settlers they sell to). It may be time for war, and war on a big scale until “they get it”. They don’t now. The Lindens do not value land, that we can see, from the way they devalue it constantly, rolling it off the auction to barons and making sure only a few have it, and sell it at higher prices, and those that buy it, can’t keep it’s priced value because they are always griefed, lagged, uglified or outbaroned lol. It’s all pretty simple.

Still, it’s worth fighting for because private land ownership has been the bedrock of civilization for centuries. I don’t see SL, just because it’s a game and an inchoate metaverse, gets to overthrow those centuries of human experience. It still matters.

Due process is important, even in a game. The Lindens aren’t explaining what the TOS violation is. Being a dick? But is that a TOS violation?

The Lindens themselves created these hippie commune dope-smoking group land tools that make everybody pitch their land into a common pool, regardless of who pays the purchase price or the tier, so that anyone can steal it out from anyone else and resell it or keep it in another group. It’s a crystal-clear, text-book case of why communism ALWAYS AND EVERYWHERE leads to crime. We need to thank the Lindens for that sterling, speeded up lesson in why socialism and communism can’t work. Thanks. Now shut it down, and make real group tools that enable the protection of private property *by those who pay for it and pay tier on it*.

Next, create a disputes resolution system that can adjudicate contracts even at some really low-level of simply verifying whether a document is true and not forged or not. This seems doable.

I suspect the message from the Lindens is this: these are our servers. Do not fuck with us. Play nice and play the way we like with the people we like or lose your land. Fuck you very much.