TOS Change As Clear As Mud

There’s much angst around regarding Linden Lab’s updated terms of service and part of that angst has been caused by Linden Lab not being clear about what they claim to be being clear about. The blog post, seems straight forward enough:

When you log in to the Second Life Viewer today, you’ll be asked to accept an updated Terms of Service. As with any legal document, it’s important to read in its entirety before accepting, but we wanted to highlight one of the changes we’ve made in this update: to better protect Second Life users against fraud, the updated Terms of Service make it clear that trading of Linden dollars (L$) on exchanges other than the LindeX, Second Life’s official L$ exchange, is not authorized or allowed.

 As the official exchange owned and operated by Linden Lab, the LindeX is the best place to buy and sell L$ for use in Second Life. It consistently offers the best rates for both buyers and sellers, and by limiting L$ trading to the exchange we operate, we are better able to protect users against fraudulent activity.

That to me sounds like Linden Lab are limiting trading of Linden Dollars to the Lindex, that the likes of Virwox are not allowed and that if I do trade on Virwox, I’m doing something that is not allowed and in breach of the terms of service. However the relevant section of the new Terms Of Service makes no reference whatsoever to trading on third party exchanges being forbidden:

5.3 There are other exchanges that are operated by third parties on which Linden dollars are exchanged.

Third party exchanges are not authorized by Linden Lab and Buying or Selling Linden dollars on third party exchanges are not authorized transactions. Third party exchanges are wholly distinct from both the LindeX exchange and Linden Lab and they have no affiliation with Linden Lab. We do not endorse or otherwise guarantee the legitimacy of the Linden dollar transfers offered on them, and we are not liable for purchases of such Linden dollars. Buying or Selling Linden dollars anywhere other than the LindeX is done so solely at your own risk. If you Buy Linden dollars that are traced to unauthorized credit card activity or other fraudulent activity, we will recoup these Linden dollars from your Account. The only authorized exchange is the LindeX.

This suggests that if I purchase Linden Dollars on a third party exchange, I do so at my own risk, which I always thought was the case anyway, but nowhere does it say it’s not allowed and that is rather an important discrepancy which Linden Lab should be looking to clear up because I don’t want to trade on a third party exchange at my own risk and then find my account is in jeopardy because Linden Lab consider it a breach of the Terms Of Service.

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The LindeX And Virwox – Pro’s And Cons

When it comes to getting money from Second Life to your bank account, there are quite a few methods. The popular method is using the Linden Exchange, known as The LindeX. Another method is using a third party exchange, such as VirWox. There are other exchanges but these are the two I’m familiar with.

There are pro’s and cons to The LindeX and VirWox and I’ll go through some of them here, this is my opinion and the post should be read with that in mind. I base this post on my own personal experience, your mileage may vary.

The LindeX is the largest currency exchange with whopping amounts of usage, it’s ran by Linden Lab so the source is extremely trustworthy. There are fees involved, there’s a 3.5% fee for selling Linden Dollars on the LindeX and you will be charged USD$1.00 if you want to cash out to Paypal, that’s a flat fee.

One of the big disadvantages with the LindeX is how long it takes to process your credit, it can take upto five working days is the official line but recently there have been reports of it taking longer, Khamon Fate recently created a thread over at SLUniverse saying he had been waiting nine business days.

VirWox has more fees than Linden Lab, they also charge more for a paypal withdrawal with. VirWox allows you to cash out to currencies other than the US Dollar, you can cash out to currencies such as The Euro or British Pound and this is where it gets to be a bit of fun, you can sometimes get a better rate if you cash out to your local currency. The LindeX only deals in US Dollars. However if you do cash out to Paypal via VirWox, say the British pound, you’ll be charged a quid for your Paypal withdrawal on top of the fee, if you use US Dollars, you’re charged a dollar. A quid is worth more than a dollar, but as I said, you may get a better rate by cshing out to British Pounds than US Dollars, so swings and roundabouts.

Continue reading “The LindeX And Virwox – Pro’s And Cons”

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