Linden Lab Screws Estate Owners, Again
Linden Lab Raises Openspace Island Prices With No Grandfathering
I think you could make a pretty compelling legal argument that there is a tortuous injury here.
The right to use a Second Life region is an asset. It’s a limited license right that can be transferred, subleased, and generally has value as an intangible asset. If Linden Lab damages the value of that asset for their own gain, then it seems to me you could pretty easily sue to recover the damages. Your intangible asset was impaired by the actions of another. Linden Lab can reasonably foresee that raising the price of OpenSpace regions from $75/month to $125/month will damage those who invested in the up front fee to acquire these limited license rights to access Linden Lab servers.
Something to think about, especially if you are Linden Lab.
Massively has other coverage of the story.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:55 am
[...] out the legal reasoning: Gigs Shrugged � Blog Archive � Linden Lab Screws Estate Owners, Again I’m not a lawyer, but I sometimes put Esq after my name so that I can pretend to be nobility. [...]
October 28th, 2008 at 2:21 am
From SLU:
[quote]Someone else pointed out that when LL lowers prices, people say, “You’re killing our businesses!” and when they raise prices, people say, “You’re killing our businesses!”[/quote]
No, that’s a gross oversimplification.
When LL lowers initial prices it hurts existing landowners (lower barrier to entry, reduced secondary market value). When LL raises recurring prices (without grandfathering) it hurts existing landowners. It’s not rocket science and it’s not a double standard.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
[...] Linden Lab Screws Estate Owners, Again kinda sums it up all. [...]
October 28th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
[...] Gigs Shrugged: Linden Lab Screws Estate Owners, Again [...]
December 5th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
[...] 39,000 of the most active users is a huge deal. Here is my take on the legal situation, which I posted on my blog shortly after this: [...]