Second Life's Terms of Service have changed on Tuesday, allowing residents to settle minor disputes with the company via binding arbitration by a variety of means, including legal proceedings inside Second Life itself.
"The new updated TOS, which are the terms and conditions on which Linden Lab provides access to the Second Life environment, give Residents the option of resolving claims for amounts less than $10,000.00 USD through a proceeding conducted by telephone, online, or based on written submissions. With this proceeding—called “binding, non-appearance-based arbitration”—we aim to save Residents both time and money by eliminating the need to appear in person at the arbitration hearing to resolve small claims." said Robin Linden in a blogpost.
The goal is of allowing Residents to resolve small claims quickly and inexpensively. The updated TOS gives Residents the option of resolving small claims through an arbitration proceeding that doesn’t involve a personal appearance by the Resident or Linden Lab.
The new dispute resolution procedure does not apply to Resident-to-Resident disputes.
It was a whole slice of bread, as we use to say in Belgium, when I tried to log in on Tuesday, reading the new ToS, while I wanted to get on the grid as soon as possible.
Finally I did accept the terms, otherwise I could not get in.;))
But seriously, I think it is good thing of Linden Lab, to give the opportunity to residents to solve those problems inworld. They will realize that the population is growing very fast, and so are the disputes, that there was a real need to solve "minor" problems inworld.
Now I am interested to see how they will solve disputes between residents. This has nothing to do with the new T0S, but I was surprised to hear yesterday from a friend, that all her belongings are taken by the landowner without even warn her, that the land will have another destination, and that she will have X days to move out.
Now she lost the rent, she already paid, and all her belongings. Can you imagine that this is possible?
All concerned residents have sent an abuse report to the Linden. Now wait and see, how this will be solved, and if it will be solved.
2 comments:
Linden Labs does not interfere with resident's quarrels. So probably: no consequences for the land owner, no follow up from LL, and staring at the blotter for ages without a result.
I know Vint, what Linden Lab does with regular residents as us. But that was probably the only thing they could do.
There is absolutely no defense for these matters. There are a lot of to do's and don'ts for us, but what do we have? As you said we own nothing anymore.
We should be happy that we have the possibility to "play" SL.
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