Please support Death Row Designs’ request to Linden Lab for better tools and procedures for sharing business accounts in Second Life – Ryan Schultz

First, I apologize. Lately, my work and personal life have been pretty hectic, even chaotic, and I haven’t had much time to blog. I often come home from work and just lie on the couch, completely exhausted. (Sometimes, I escape to my beloved Second Life for an hour or two, which is a welcome refuge from the sometimes overwhelming changes happening in my real life.)

Among the many changes that have occurred, the entire science library where I work (collections and staff) has been moved to another library at my university. I haven’t even completely unpacked all the moving boxes into the new office yet!

And I’m suffering from a pinched nerve in my neck again, and at worst it causes numbness and tingling all over my right arm and hand, limiting the amount of time I can spend at the keyboard. I’m currently seeing a physical therapist twice a week to get better!

Thank you for your patience as I navigate another change and challenge in my life. I will be back when the time is right.

It may be hard to believe, but most SL businesses are operating against the TOS, and unfortunately there is currently no way for SL to fix this. Furthermore, the risk of losing years of work overnight without warning is very real. We have recently faced this threat and can attest to its severity. Please join us in changing this and help ensure a safer and more compliant future for our community.

—Jaimy Hancroft, owner of Death Row Designs

Last Thursday, Jaimy Hancroft, owner and operator of Second Life home and garden decor store Death Row Designs, received a very unpleasant surprise.

I am writing to address a serious issue that has recently affected my business, Deathrowdesigns (DRD). This business has been operating on Second Life since 2008… Recently, Second Life cracked down on TOS violations regarding account sharing and removed all of our marketplace listings. Over 2000 listings are gone. They have suspended our accounts without warning or reason. This has had a serious impact on our operations.

Despite pointing out that Section 4.1 of the TOS mentions the possibility of obtaining written permission to share avatars, the support team has consistently refused to provide a clear path or process for obtaining this consent. I have been told that sharing an account in any capacity will result in termination, which feels particularly targeted, especially considering that other businesses operate without similar scrutiny.

My account is now mine and mine alone, but I can’t function or do business on my own. DRD manages over 10,000 customers and over 3,000 items. Doing all this on my own is not really an option, and there is no admin solution.

It would be impossible to run DRD alone. I have my sister Charlotte Bailey, our amazing CSR, and without her we would not be the success we are today.

The problem with Jaimy and his sister is that they shared a single Second Life avatar/account to run their business. This is a common situation for SL stores that grow past a certain point and employ multiple people. Linden Lab has rules about account sharing, but these rules can sometimes make it difficult to run a profitable business in Second Life. Jaimy is upset and is being punished by LL, and you can’t blame her. It’s possible that someone with a grudge (a disgruntled customer or even a business competitor) reported that she shared an account with her sister simply to embarrass the store.

She started a discussion thread on the official Second Life community forums, which was closed by Tommy Linden, who said:

There seems to be some confusion not only with the Terms of Service, but also with the process for handling account sharing.

I don’t intend to argue with the policy itself or the process for addressing it, but I would like to point everyone to Section 4.1 https://lindenlab.com/tos and specifically ask that you read this section of the Terms of Service carefully.

“You may not sell, transfer or assign your Account or any rights, licenses or obligations under this Agreement to any third party without Linden Lab’s prior written consent (including, for the avoidance of doubt, allowing other individuals to access your Account). Linden Lab reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to manage and control the number of Accounts you may establish and maintain.”

Now let’s talk about the process issue for handling account sharing. Termination is not the first step taken when someone is found to have shared their account. For the security of the account holder, the account is temporarily suspended. After contacting the account holder, we discuss the above policy to ensure that they understand it before the account is deactivated.

I know business owners and content creators have concerns about this policy. The original poster has created a feedback post that everyone can participate in here: https://feedback.secondlife.com/feature-requests/p/allow-business-accounts-to-share-access-responsibly. I can’t stress enough how this is the best way for business owners to get support for more tools and options to better manage their businesses without risking the security of their accounts.

We will be closing this thread as we will no longer be discussing the Terms of Service or the procedures for enforcing them, but we strongly encourage you to join the feedback discussion at the link I provided.

Feedback post on LL’s Canny system, titled: Allows business accounts to share access responsiblyIt reads as follows:

As a long-time business owner in Second Life, managing our operations efficiently is very important to us. The recent implementation of the TOS on account sharing has severely disrupted our business by removing our entire marketplace with over 2,000 listings. Death Row Designs (DRD) serves over 10,000 customers and manages over 3,000 items, so it is impossible for us to manage it alone. I would suggest creating a system to obtain written consent for sharing business accounts between trusted individuals, specifically for business operations. This would allow businesses like ours to continue to thrive without compromising account security. It would also provide a practical solution for businesses that need to share account responsibilities while ensuring compliance with the TOS.

This is currently the most upvoted request in Linden lab’s Feature Requests list, and I encourage you to read all the comments on the Second Life forums and Canny, and log in to Canny using your SL account to add your votes for this request. Thanks!

You can find out more about Death Row Designs on their website and their very active Discord server, and you should also be aware of their annual Summer Sale, where you can automatically get a 50% refund on almost everything you can buy in the in-world store. This sale runs from June 15th to 30th, 2024.

June 18 Update: I reached out to Jamie Hancroft, who said that Keira Linden, Linden Lab’s Support Operations Manager, had reached out to her and was currently working with other departments within LL to find a solution.

Below is an excerpt from Jaimy’s reply to Keira, which she kindly shared with me.

To be honest, the TOS (Second Life Terms of Service) is pretty vague, and I think you know that. The official SL wiki page is full of references to account sharing for projects like this:

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Managing_business_projects_in_Second_Life “Again, when an employee leaves your company, you should immediately change the passwords for all accounts they had access to. You should also remove their account from all appropriate groups and grant them access so they cannot access your business content and accounts in Second Life.”

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Permitting_Others_to_Access_or_Transferring_Second_Life_Accounts “If you give others access to your account, you do so at your own risk. This means that if you allow someone else to access your account, you are responsible for what that person does while using your account.”

This page may be outdated, but regular users rely on it for relevant information. It’s problematic that the SL ‘official’ wiki has this information, given that the TOS seem contradictory. If the TOS specifically requires consent for account sharing, shouldn’t they have provided a way to grant this consent from the beginning? As your support put it, “Support is unable to provide the permission you requested, and there is currently no way to obtain this consent.” This is complete stonewalling.

While we understand the need to protect account security, there needs to be a balanced approach that allows business operations to continue in a legitimate manner. This could include setting up a dedicated business account with enhanced security features, creating a transparent and documented process for obtaining consent, or implementing something similar to Bot Agent Status as many on the portal have suggested.

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