EOTB: Linden Lab To Raise Premium Account Price, Lowering Linden Dollar Buy Fee, Sim Monthy Fees

 

Yesterday on Monday June 8, Linden Lab announced some price changes. Good news if you keep buying Lindens or own one or more sims. But if you're a Premium Resident, some bad news. 

 

First the bad news, which the Lab called the reason for "adding more value to paid membership plans." The cost of Premium will be going up from $11.99 USD a month to $12.99 a month. If you pay by the quarter or year, the price will be a little less. If you pay every three months, the price will be going up to $11.99 USD a month or $35.97 per quarter. If you pay by the year, the rate will be going up to $9.99 USD a month or $119.88 annually. There was some fine print at the bottom of the announcement saying that the option to pay quarterly is no longer available "for new purchases."

 

The last time Premium accounts went up in price was over seven years ago from $9.50 a month, in May 2019, which the Lab then called "the difficult decision to make our first Premium price increase in over a decade." Their language back then was more direct than the wording in Monday's announcement. 

 

The price increase is not immediate, but will take place thirty days after the announcement, on July 8, 2026.  

 

The costs for Plus and Premium Plus level accounts. $5.99 and $29.99 USD a month respectively, which were introduced after the previous price increase, are not changing.  

 

Not all of the news was bad. Linden Lab announced that the minimum fee to purchase Linden dollars would be going down from $1.49 USD to 49 cents. 

 

But, there was a catch. The Lab would announce the ceiling rate, the maximum buy fee, was going up from $14.99 USD to $29.99.  The benefit of making fewer purchases of more Linden dollars instead of more smaller ones is being reduced. 

 

The fee changes Linden Lab wanted to emphasize the most is what will likely affect the smallest number of residents (albeit so much of the Grid as we know it depends on them).  The price of maintaining a sim will be going down from $209 a month to $199 a month. Sims whose prim capacity has been expanded to 30,000 will drop in monthly maintenance from $239 USD to $209. For a sim with an education discount, the monthly rate to maintain it drops from $129 USD to $105. This is a decrease of almost a fifth. So good news for those paying for education areas. The setup fee of $349 USD will not change. 

 

Linden Lab would justify it's increase in Premium accounts by saying they were "adding more value to our plans. In the past month alone, we’ve added two valuable new benefits - exclusive early access to some of the hottest shopping events in Second Life and at least 12 exclusive gifts monthly, which is the largest collection of exclusive paid membership monthly gifts ever!" They also stated they were offering "Expanded access to Linden Homes, Premium customer support benefits, more subscriber-exclusive virtual gifts than ever before," and "New partnerships offering early access to some of Second Life’s hottest shopping events and experiences."

 

A thread opened in the official Second Life forums on the announcement.  While there was some praise for making land more affordable, most of the comments were grumbles about the greater cost for Premium accounts. "They're getting greedy again and want to milk Premium a little more if they can, or push more people to go for (Premium Plus)." "'Expanded access to Linden Homes' ... so what, in fact, what does that even mean?" "Given that just about everything in real life has gone up a lot in price in recent times, it's hardly surprising that LL has put its fees up."

 

To see the blog post in full, Click Here.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday February 28

 

    ~*~

 

At 10 AM PST   

 

Formal Debate: STEM versus Arts/Humanities/Social Studies Funding

 

Debaters: Mist and John O'Conner

 

Moderated by Stephen Xootfly 

 

Exact location in sim unknown

 

    ~*~

 

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝  

 

Emerald Crystal Golf Course In Trouble

 

 

The Emerald Crystal Golf Course is a good place to golf in Second Life. The Newser has written about it, twice (1) (2). Unfortunately, it's been having some trouble. 

On October 1, Laz Dresler, the owner, or greenskeeper, of Emerald, posted the following in the golf course's group.

I always promised I would communicate when the Situation at Emerald Crystal Golf  Course became Grim.
Its  officially Grim. This Summer i hoped  for change. I thought  maybe  everyone was on Vacation and things would turn around and we would make a come back financially. Our Traffic has been good. Sadly our donations  are no longer supporting the 25K we need by the first of each month. September  we were short by half.

If things don't change for October ...

 

 A week later, Laz stated people had been donating, for which she was grateful for, but they still needed more help.

 

You are all gems  - However, among  you we have individuals in our Group that are jewels who appreciate our history and what Emerald Crystal means to Second Life.  

FYI - We are not close to meeting our Goal for next month yet. 

Please don't forget Every Linden matters to our survival  Tiers never stop being collected,  Every month it takes  25,000 Linden to keep the sim. We are officially out of the little cushion that use to make up for our shortages.   

 

For those wishing to donate, there's a wishing well not from from the entrance at Dark Sun Island (31/59/23). Donate to that, and the Lindens will go to paying for the sim. Or you can send them to  CrystalZalari . You can also go to the weekly event at their "19th hole" every Sunday at 12:30 PM.

 

Hopefully for Emerald Crystal, soon the only scary things for Halloween will be the spooks, bats, and wolves.  

 

 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dark%20Sun%20Island/31/59/23

 

Hat tip: Charlee Harmony 

 

 Bixyl Shuftan

EOTB: Lab Announces Upcoming Changes "To The Financial And Billing Systems of Second Life"

 

 

A few days ago on Friday January 17, Linden Lab announced they would be making some minor changes to how residents buy and sell Linden dollars. 

 

We are introducing improvements to the financial and billing systems in Second Life in partnership with Tilia, our trusted billing provider. These upgrades aim to streamline and modernize transaction processes, ensuring a more secure and reliable platform for our community. While you may notice some visual updates when interacting with payments and payouts, the overall experience will remain familiar and seamless.

The announcement promised wallet integration, better cashier and account dashboards, faster payouts and more options for them, The updates will be released "on a rolling basis with everyone" near the end of January. This includes a different look for the screen appearance. 

There are currently no changes to the fees, but there is one less option for transactions, unless you already have it. Starting in January 30, people will no longer be able to add Skrill as a payout method, though if you already have it you can still use it. 

Also, five countries will no longer be able to have new payout connections: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Bosnia. That Russia and Belarus can't is no surprise due to Russia being under sanctions and Belarus having close ties to it. 

For the blog post in detail, Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab's Payouts to Residents Exceed 1.1 Billion in Total

 

An article by Venturebeat has gotten attention in recent days. In part, it's because of the amount Linden Lab has invested in Second Life over the years, 1.3 billion US dollars. But it also mentioned something the residents would find more interesting. It's paid out a total of 1.1 billion US dollars to the residents.

It would be mentioned in a letter shared with some residents by Brett Linden

The formal numbers are:  Linden Lab has officially surpassed $1.3 billion invested in building our world and $1.1 billion paid out to our incredible creators. These milestones speak volumes about the vibrant economy and thriving community that we have worked together to build over the years.

Fun fact: Creators in Second Life are 100x more likely to earn over $10K annually compared to Roblox - as highlighted in this VentureBeat article detailing how Second Life remains a shining example of a creator-first metaverse.

This achievement underscores the power of Second Life as a creator-first metaverse and the dedication of our vibrant community.

 

While Roblox does pay it's users for content created, they don't make as much in comparison. They give content creators about a 70 percent share. In contrast, Linden Lab allows Second Life's content creators a 90% share of what they make, taking in ten percent in fees. 

An article in New World Notes would get into this further. According to it's sources, of the 21,152 people that made money in Second Life in 2023, about 30% or 6,446 made over $1000 USD. 1580 would make over $10,000. 138 would make over $100,000. And 14 would make over a million dollars US. 

 

That's quite a bit of money from what some would dismiss as a "game."

 

In contrast, only 0.2%, a fifth of one percent of Roblox users make more than $1000 USD. Venturebeat compared it less than favorably to Second Life, "the business of Roblox today consists of a few winners and more losers, kind of like the triple-A game business today, where the odds of any given person’s success are pretty low."

Hamlet Au would call the businessmen and women of SL about four percent of Second Life's monthly users, about 500,000 in number. While the big moneymakers in the past were land barons such as Anshe Chung, it was his opinion that today an increasing number were in the mesh avatar and accessory business. 

On a personal commentary, there's no statistics available for those who made a little less than a thousand USD, but it's not hard to imagine someone who makes several hundred dollars a year DJing or small-time content creating or some other inworld income, and while one might not be able to make a living that way, a few extra bucks in one's pocket can make life a little more comfortable.

 

Sources: Venturebeat, New World Notes  

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: Game Company GREED

 

If you're a gamer, you've probably seen a promising game in development, a "beta" version, gotten it because of what's promised in the future, and in the weeks and months ahead while there's some development it doesn't come close to the hype when you forked over your money. Nydia Tungsten has seen this happen time after time, as well as other occasions of "bait and switch" in the gaming industry, and decided it was time to write something about it. So what did she have to say?

Read Nydia's commentary in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Cartoon of The Day: In The Money

 

 

 Taken at Scorn during one of it's events. At around 250 to 1, Second Life prices don't seem like so much when compared to real-life ones. But a thousand here, and a thousand there, and pretty soon you're talking some serious cash.

 

 By Bixyl Shuftans

Tilia Changes Terms of Service

 

 

For those who have yet to buy or sell Linden dollars in the past few days, you may want to be prepared to read some fine print. There have been a few changes in the Terms of Service of Tilia, the platform which handles purchases and sales of Linden Dollars for real-world currency. 

 

 In a thread in the SL forums, Tjay Wicken explained the differences, "Brought to you with the help of Claude AI."

• Effective Date:
  • Old version: November 20, 2023
  • New version: July 29, 2024
• Section 9.2 Termination for Cause:
  • Old version: Included a paragraph about providing notice and reasons for refusal of transactions, and procedures for correcting errors.
  • New version: This paragraph has been removed entirely.
• Section 9.3 Termination for Convenience:
  • Old version: Included a paragraph about lifting suspensions and completing transactions once reasons for refusal no longer exist.
  • New version: This paragraph has been removed entirely.
• Section 9.5 Termination - General:
  • Old version: The paragraph about re-completing identity verification procedures was in the middle of the section.
  • New version: This paragraph is now at the end of the section.
• Section 12.4 Limited Liability:
  • Old version: Mentioned "service Publishers" in the list of parties not liable for certain types of losses.
  • New version: The term has been corrected to "service providers".
• Section 13.1 Notifications of Dispute:
  • Old version: The mailing address for dispute notices was "Tilia Inc., 548 Market St. PMB 59201, San Francisco, California 94104-5401 US".
  • New version: The company name has changed from "Tilia Inc." to "Tilia LLC" in the mailing address.
• Throughout the document:
  • Old version: Referred to the company as "Tilia Inc." in several places.
  • New version: All instances of "Tilia Inc." have been changed to "Tilia LLC".
    

Edit: To sum it up (my interpretation):

1) Before they had to give you notice and reason for refusing a transaction and tell you how to fix it. Now they no longer need to.

2) Prior to the change, they had to lift your account suspension and attempt to complete the transaction once reasons for refusal had been remediated by you, but as they no longer need to notify you, they no longer have to attempt completing the transaction again either.

3) Moved a paragraph around, corrected typos as well as changing to Tilia LLC from Tilia Inc.

 Tilia was created by Linden Lab several years ago, but sold in April this year.

 

Panda Jenn's Pad Needs Help

 

It's been a little while since we last wrote about Panda Jenn's Pad. The Internet cartoonist and artist has been busy in real life, with little time to get on Second Life. She recently messaged the Newser to say she will be having more time to get online and have events there (as well as impromptu meetups with friends). But, there's a problem. 

 

Panda Jenn's friend Logan Bamaisin (Laufiair Hexicola) had been letting the venue stay on his land. But due to his financial situation will soon no longer be able to keep up the payments, at least not without help. People wanting to help can send Linden dollars to Logan or Panda Jenn (PandaJenn0 Resident), or then can send real world money to her via Paypal at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/pandajenn .

Panda Jenn's Pad is of Asian (mostly Japanese) style, and has a number of rooms, including a game room (not all of the games work). There's also a club area for music and dance events, as well as a fish pond and hot tub. 

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bagheera/211/199/3902

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

Second Life Living Expo Reaches One Million Linden Mark

 

 On Monday February 5, it was announced in the Relay for Life in Second Life Volunteers group that the fundraising in the Living Expo event had passed the one million Linden Dollar Mark.

We hit the $1 Million mark just now! You guys, that's amazing!!!! Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to this event and to Relay For Life of Second Life. It's beccause of people like you, that we keep fighting this fight! ♥

The Expo goes on to Friday February 16

Letter To The Editor, And Response: The Borrower

 

Recently the Newser got a reader submitted article in which the writer was looking for advice. Among the people he knows is someone who is seemingly always asking for Lindens and real-life money, saying he needs it for his SL & real-life, and wonders just what is with this guy. Editor Bixyl Shuftan had a few things to say on the matter.

Read more in People.

 

Facebook/Meta Quietly Leaving Virtual Worlds Behind

 

Last year, Facebook/Meta was really harping itself as the future of virtual worlds. It was touting it's Horizons as the up and coming brand new virtual landscape that the masses would want to join and experience. This year, they've been quiet about it. CEO and owner Mark Zuckerburg has gone from repeatedly promoting Horizons as the must be-in place online, to having stopped.

 

So what happened? Well, Horizons turned out to be a big money loser. Zuckerburg invested billions in his company's virtual world, only to get very little return for it in comparison. 

 

The number of people signing up was far short than the half million expected, and most didn't stay after their first month. It seems the "lack of realism" on the avatars, notably having no legs, was one of the big reasons. Of it's virtual worlds, only a handful were visited by more than 50, most not visited by anyone but it's creator. And unlike Second Life, which continued to do very well, Facebook/Meta workers didn't enjoy using the place on their free time "because it's riddled with bugs and other quality issues."

For all the money invested, Horizon's returns are small in comparison. It brought in 727 million USD in 2022, 17% less than in 2021. The result has been huge loses, losing nearly 24 BILLION dollars in 2021 and 2022, 13.7 billion in 2022 alone. Considering their overall income was 32.1 billion, the company had been continuing to spend and invest heavily after initial small returns, and was getting even less. So no wonder Facebook/Meta is cutting its losses.

Fortunately for Zuckerberg, technology tends have allowed him to quietly leave virtual reality behind: AI, which in recent months has gotten more attention thanks to programs like Chat GPT. An article on "The Street" stated in an announcement, he announced, "We're creating a new top-level product group at Meta focused on generative AI to turbocharge our work in this area. We're starting by pulling together a lot of the teams working on generative AI across the company into one group focused on building delightful experiences around this technology. ... In the short term, we'll focus on building creative and expressive tools. Over the longer term, we'll focus on developing AI personas that can help people in a variety of ways."

So it seems Horizon is being left behind, joining the ranks of the virtual worlds such as There and Blue Mars that had gotten plenty of talk but ended up falling short, while Second Life and to a smaller extent VRChat, continue to flourish.

 

Sources: The Street, Kotaku, PC Gamer

Bixyl Shuftan

Fundrasing Event Tonight at Club Cutass For Recoyote Mindes and Perri Prinz

 

This week, the Sunweaver community found out two of its residents are in trouble. Recoyote Mindes and Perri Prinz become a real-life couple when they moved in together. But a few days ago they got some very bad news. When Rec made the payment on their mortgage, he was told that the time of payment was being moved from slightly after the middle of the month to the first, and they had just a short amount of time to come up with the money: $860 USD.

We need your help!
 Reco and Perri are facing a financial emergency!
 
 Perri Prinz: REC came home from paying the rent saying they are not only raising the rent, but they are insisting he pay on the 1st some the month, when he knows he doesn't get paid till the middle of the month, and we have no savings to come up with an extra month's rent, which is what we need to beat this eviction trap. The rent is $860.

As you can see they need our help ASAP, if you can donate cash GREAT! If not we will be having an event this Friday to help them raise lindens more info on that coming soon!
Please help us perform a Christmas Miracle!

As plans started coming together on what to do, it was decided to hold a fundraiser event at Club Cutlass. Right now, the schedule is for five DJs to perform from 4 to 10 PM. The idea is for people to either donate Linden dollars or make direct donations through Paypal. 

If you can spare some money, by all means come by and give a little.

Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757).

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

Lab Announces Deal With JP Morgan, "Strategic Investment" On Tilia

 

In the Second Life blog yesterday, Tuesday October 18, Linden Lab announced a business deal concerning JP Morgan. 

We’re excited to share with the Second Life community some news about Tilia LLC, the all-in-one payments platform that powers the metaverse. Tilia  was originally built and continues to support the Second Life economy.

Tilia today announced that it has secured a new strategic investment from J.P. Morgan Payments. In addition to the investment, Tilia is also working with J.P. Morgan Payments to further enhance Tilia’s current capabilities throughout its processing platform including providing increased payment and payout methods, expanding pay-out currencies and support services.
Read the full announcement at Tilia.io

Wikipedia lists JP Morgan as the largest bank in the United States and the largest bank in the world "by market capitalization." 

More on this story later.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Linden Lab to Begin Charging Sales Taxes on Sim Tier, Other "Recurring Billings"

 

Yesterday on February 28, Linden Lab announced it would begin charging Second Life's residents in the US sales taxes. The Lab stated they had been paying the costs of what residents would otherwise owe for the past few years but "are no longer able to absorb them."

 Ever since Second Life’s inception two decades ago we have seen many local, state and federal governments impose new ways to collect tax revenue from internet-based businesses. The Wayfair Sales Tax case decision by the Supreme Court was when prior rules about sales tax really changed.  Since then, we have done our best to shield our residents from these taxes as long as possible, but we are no longer able to absorb them.

As of March 31, 2022 we will begin charging sales tax in the U.S. For the time being we will charge taxes only on recurring billings, such as premium subscriptions and land fees. The amount of tax charged will be communicated clearly in the receipt or invoice.

We will continue to absorb the taxes at point-of-sale purchases such as one-time L$ buys, first-time premium subscriptions, and name changes. At some point in the future we will need to begin passing those taxes on to you. We will make another announcement when those charges are phased in.

Your individual charges will be determined by your local jurisdictions. There are more than 13,000 sales and use tax jurisdictions in the United States, with great variation in their rules and tax rates. Tax amounts are also affected by other factors such as the type of goods or services being purchased. To determine the charges, we will be relying on an automated third-party system which closely tracks local tax laws, so the tax amounts are always up to date.

This is news we don’t enjoy sharing, but for the health of the business and of Second Life, we can no longer continue absorbing these tax burdens.

As stated, the Lab won't start charging until the end of the month, and will charge taxes "only on recurring billings." This means Premium accounts and sim tier. For now, things like name-change fees, Marketplace transactions, "first-time premium subscriptions," inworld purchases, and of course the buying of Linden dollars, won't be affected by taxes. But the Lab is saying " At some point in the future" they will begin passing down tax charges on those as well. The Lab will be using "an automated third-party system which closely tracks local tax laws" to determine how much tax a resident owes.

It was the South Dakota vs Wayfair case (of which Overstock.com and Newegg were also involved) in 2018 that allowed states to tax Internet transactions. It's unknown when states in the US first started telling Linden Lab they were owed money. But it is probable that the increase of Second Life's number of active residents in the Covid Pandemic put the Lab in a better position to absorb the costs. And lately, the number of new Covid cases has been plummeting.

In the official forums, response was somewhat muted, European residents saying they had been paying a Value Added Tax (VAT) on purchases for years, one saying, "I like our VAT system. We all pay in and we all get something back in return ..." Some were of mixed views, "This is neither surprising nor unfair, as European users well know. It does, however, perhaps represent a step backwards for the efforts to reduce the role of land cost in the SL economy." And some groaned, "They use this excuse to raise prices. Not so strange with the roaring inflation. But I guess they will use the inflation excuse for another raise later in the year."

In any event, while we've sometimes thought of Linden Lab's fees as taxes on our virtual experinces, real taxes are now coming to Second Life.

To check out the blog entry in full, Click Here. 

Source: Wikipedia

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Free Lindens At The Fallout Shelter

 

For those dropping by the Fallout Shelter on Sundays, something new has been added. This weekend, Rebel Wolf announced a raffle that would give a prize to a random winner, if they were part of the sim group or not.

The Insane Wolf is trying something new..He has a raffle gas pump in the Fallout Factory ( dance hall) In theory anyone can click on to enter, and win $200 on Sunday night. Non group members can even enter right now. The prize may increase if there is any interest. But I'm very cheap. Sue Me. Come one come all. Bring your alts! It should work..maybe...hopefully...

Rebel Wolf would tell me, "If there is any interest by the draw Sunday night at or after dance, I may increase the prize to 1000 a  week, group members only, but for now its open to all. ... Don't gotta be here to win. ... If it gets a lotof interest, it stays, and robs me blind with a increase in Lindens to give away. So! Donate to the Deadlands donation barrell, so I can give it away."

The Fallut Shelter is in th Deadlands,in Paradise Kingdom (87/37/22) (follow the road).

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Rare Sight: Camping For Linden Dollars

 

 Now here's a sight I haven't seen in many years in Second Life. 

Zipping around the mainland while trying out a Cloud data detector (more about that later), my curiosity drew me high above a sim to the platform above full of stores and hangouts, and I happened to notice what looked like an avatar cleaning a window. I thought it was the building owner, or maybe his/her assistant. But getting closer, I noticed the following display at the ladder:

Camper: (name of avatar)
L$1 every 95 minutes
So far: $L0

It was a blast from the past, an actual camping spot!

When I first came to Second Life in 2006-2007, camping spots were very common. They were a means to boost traffic for a sim for just a few Lindens per avatar. Some sims had a lot of them, and they were in many different styles. In some, you just sat down. Others had you dancing in place. And some made it look like your avatar was performing some task such as sweeping or cleaning. There was even a website that listed camping spots and how much they paid. 

Like many other things in Second Life, camping had it's fans and it's detractors. Many called it "gaming the system" as high traffic numbers attracted more people. One friend of mine commented "if you must camp, do so in a sim that isn't heavily populated." Supposedly some people would be on for hours to get just a few Lindens, which got some people wondering if these campers were better off taking an SL job or buying Linden dollars.

To me, it was a way to get a few extra Lindens while checking my email and maybe a few websites (I didn't usually have too many IMs at this time), usually at a spot that paid me a few Lindens every 10-15 minutes. But once the emails were done, I'd soon be gone. Why didn't I buy Linden dollars? After a talk with family once I got on Second Life, I decided not to put any real money into the virtual world for a while. Once I got a job at SL Newspaper, I pretty much stopped using camping spots.

It's hard to say exactly when camping for Linden dollars went downhill. I think by 2009, they had become an uncommon sight. Second Life was starting to change as money wasn't as easy to come by as in the early days. Although camping would remain, it would be in the form of chairs that would allow you a free item, usually in stores, for sitting on them for a half hour or so. A much better deal if you were trying to get Lindens for new clothes. Camping for Lindens, aside from a few rare locations such as this, pretty much became history.

 Bixyl Shuftan

JB Raccoon Needs A Hand

JB Raccoon, the co-owner of KXVN Radio, has run into some financial difficulties. The reason: some paperwork snafus that have thrown a monkey wrench into his Social Security income.

"I am STILL trying to sort everything out however after I pay my rent that leaves me with $30 to pay my other expenses including my medication refills which the reality is, I just can't make it. So here I am calling for help, hoping to raise the funds so I can cover my expenses while I fight to get this sorted."

JB has set up a Gofundme page for donations. His goal is $1000 USD. 

"Thank you in advance to all that help, my words would never be able to describe how appreciative I will be."

Addition: For some reason, Gofundme took the page down. Those who already sent cash will have it refunded. JB is also accepting help via Paypal : paypal.me/jbraccoon .

Tilia Needed For Second Life Accounts Starting August 1

While the Lindens gave some news of their upcoming plans during the "Meet the Lindens" events last week (many of which the Newser was hoping to describe in more detail in the next few days), there was one that wasn't mentioned: Tilia. On the Second Life blog yesterday, the Lab announced it would be part of "Important Changes to your Second Life Account."

Beginning on August 1, 2019, Tilia will take over certain aspects of the Second Life service. Tilia enables Linden Lab to continue the Second Life service in its current form through enhanced regulatory compliance protocols.  To achieve this, Tilia will assume responsibility for managing your USD denominated account, which will be referred to as your "Tilia Account."  After August 1, Tilia will handle process credit requests and payments made from your Tilia Account.

 

Effective August 1, in order to continue using Second Life you will have to agree to Tilia’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.  A Tilia Account associated with your Second Life Account will automatically be created for you and you will not need a separate username or password to access your Tilia Account.  

 

In order to stay in compliance with regulatory requirements, if you wish to process a credit, we will need certain personal information to verify your identity, including your name, address, date of birth, and social security number (or government-issued identification if you are not a U.S. Citizen).  You may be required to provide additional information to complete the transaction. Tilia will securely store this information so that you should only need to provide it once.

 

Additionally, please note that customers under 18 years of age will not be able to process credit after August 1, 2019 until they reach the age of 18. 

 

As always, Second Life remains free to access and enjoy!  However, if your Tilia Account is inactive for a period of 12 months we will charge your Tilia Account a fee to the extent permitted by applicable law.  If you have questions about the inactivity fee, please see Tilia’s Terms of Service.

What is Tilia? Linden Lab bought the company in late 2015. The name had been registered in 2002, but the business, whatever it's purpose, had shut down. When Inara Pey asked Linden Lab what it was for, the response by their Director of Global Communications was " a subsidiary of Linden Lab, focused on payments and the compliance work associated with operating virtual economies, and it will provide services for both Second Life and Project Sansar." It's also the genus name of about thirty species of trees that are sometimes called "linden trees," which may be why Linden Lab was interested in the name.

The response by the residents has been more than a little confusion, on both various Discord servers and the Second Life forums. The "Tilia Takes Over" thread has already reached 18 pages as of the writing of this article. There were a number of questions such as would people be hit with bills for not buying or selling Lindens? Was this Age Verification all over again? And there were no shortage of comments such as "Linden Labs, I am very disappointed in you. ... Some have accused you of a bait and switch over the Linden Homes and they were wrong. But inducing people to re-up for another year and then springing a change in the terms of service a week later is a true bait and switch."

While some expressed worry, others such as Becky Nosferatu stated there wasn't much for most residents to worry about. Some however would be paying more.

This took me nearly 20 minutes to figure this out. For those who are in the know, there is a new law and a new ISSUE now, involving the way Linden Lab works with real-world money.

When you buy or sell Lindens, you have a middle ground where the Lindens goes to. So think of that as your virtual wallet. This money just sits there until you cash out (send to Paypal) or your buy in (convert it to Lindens).

Now, what the above means is if you have 0.00 in that "wallet" let's call it, it will do nothing to you. You won't get any fees, you won't be charged, etc.

For people who DO cash out or in, if you have money IN that wallet, and you LEAVE IT THERE FOR A YEAR, they will count that as being inactive and start hitting you with fees. It will take from your "wallet" until you either cash it out or use it, or until your balance reaches 0.00.

Everyone, unless you are under 18, are required to pony up your valuable info IF you want to use the cash out/buy in feature to get Linden dollars. This is EXPECTED of you. As of August 1. this new system will take effect. They're already making a new account for everyone on SL.

What it also means though, if you are over 18 and want to cash out, you must offer up personal info, including your social. A ton of people are not cool with that concept, but trust me, they wouldn't ask for it if they didn't have to.

Why are they doing this? There is a new law in place that affects US and international citizens. This new law means that if you are working with crypto (virtual) currency, you CAN NOT hoard this currency for "better prices" before you cash out, because that is LAUNDERING and that is a big no-no. It's like if you get word fhe stock market is going to crash, you pullout all your funds from said stock and sell it. That, my friends, can net you prison time.

If you don't ever cash out or buy in? You don't have to worry about this at all. You are completely immune and nothing will come of it for you.

If you're like me, however, you are subject to fees when you cash out; Linden Lab's fees, and whatever Tilia's going to charge as well. Nothing we can really do about it.

Becky cited an article in Coindesk.com, referring to a statement from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

There's plenty of information and more than a little legalese to go through. But it seems Tilia being put into action isn't just for the Lab to put up more hoops for residents to jump through and another fee to pay (and maybe higher tier prices from landlords having to pass down feed imposed on them to break even). It appears Linden Lab is doing this due to wanting to avoid legal trouble from the US Government.

As Second Life has adapted technically to change to fit with the times over the past sixteen years, it seems it has to adapt to changes, or at least greater enforcement of, laws dealing with the Internet and commerce as well.

Source: Modem World, Wikipedia, Coindesk.com

Bixyl Shuftan

More on M and M's Sales Cancelation, Lindens Taken, by Linden Lab

A week ago, we wrote about Marcthur Goosson and his "M and M Creations" having two sales worth a toral of 42,000 Linden dollars being canceled by Linden Lab and the money taken. When he asked Linden Lab for an explanation, they didn't say very much other than the sales, made through M and M's Marketplace page were "done with Lindens acquired from another source." So he turned to us, and our readers, for answers.

Marxus Lefevre was the one person who answered through the Newser's article comment section, saying:

It does happen a lot actually... when I was working for an estate, which shall remain unnamed, LL would take regularly L$ from the estate owners account with above explanations. Due to close contacts with the support we eventually figured, that there were rental payments done with money acquired, i.e. from stolen credit cards etc., often from Russian or Arabian accounts. If the money was stolen from another account, which happens to often sadly too, LL would return the money to the person it was stolen from, independent of the purchases made through the offenders. I always thought it was the right thing to do though, but I understand, that it comes disturbing to Marcthur or anyone who's not aware of these things.

On the Friends of Second Life Facebook page, there were more comments. While there were accusations of "shady business practices," others confirmed Marxus' story. " This has been done for years and even on almost on daily basis. It relates to their procedure on how to handle stolen accounts. And perfectly legal. Credit card comp, banks etc all do the same by reverting payments when accounts stolen. ... This a normal buisness practice and nothing shady." "it's just a nice way of saying 'stolen lindens'."

So why didn't Linden Lab just up and say that they were returning stolen money to it's owner instead of giving vague and cryptic explanations? The only responses I got were from the Facebook chatter, "They just can't give more details than (they) did due to privacy right issues of account holder. ... by law they can't."

I don't know where to look to confirm this explanation. But if this is true, it seems this isn't simply Linden clumsiness at work, but also the law. Still, couldn't the Lab find some way to give a better explanation to a confused content creator trying to make a few dollars only to find his sales canceled and the money taken? There is also to consider that if dealing with stolen cash is a frequent problem, Linden Lab may be naturally reluctant to talk about it. In any event, this seems to be the best explanation there is for Marcthur's missing money.

Bixyl Shuftan