When logging into Second Life today, you might have found that before entering the world, you got a popup to agree with the new Terms of Service (TOS). What about that? What are the changes?
Well, of course you can read it on the official Linden Lab Blog, but we thought that it would be handy to give you a short explanation. In short, it introduces a new system to deal with disputes between you and Linden Lab.
So what is it?
In the past, when you had a dispute with Linden Lab, you had to contact them, write them, and eventually sue them. You would have to go to court over relatively small issues and amounts. Linden Lab is not known for being easily approachable, so a lot of disputes were left alone, just because people weren't in the position to go to court. This could be because they live half way around the world, but also because costs of legal representation could easily rise above the disputed amount.
For these smaller amounts (up to US$ 10,000), Linden Lab now offers to solve any disputes through established arbitration organizations. We're not going to list them all, but in case you do have a dispute, you can find some examples on the Q&A on the LL Blog. Basically you can choose your own mediator/arbitrator, as long as it meets some reasonable prerequisites.
Of course, you will have to go to the LL complaint department first. That is, try to contact Linden Lab by phone or email, wait for a reply, and hope for the best. And if that doesn't work, then you can choose to go foward with arbitration.
So is this an improvement?
In a way, yes. It's a more standardized way of resolving any 'small' disputes, without having to go to court. Most of it can be done through old fashioned snail mail, by phone, and through the internet. You don't have to actually travel to San Francisco and be physically there. And it's binding. So whatever the decision will be, the dispute is always resolved.
And what are the dangers of this new TOS?
Well, Linden Lab has to approve the mediator/arbitrator that you want to use. On the other hand, if you and LL really can't agree on this, there's still the option to go to court, even for those smaller amounts. This new arbitration system doesn't exclude the other.
The costs of such arbitration can vary, but usually are no more than a few hundred US dollars for disputes under US$ 10k. But please mind, the new TOS and the LL blog do not say anything about getting reimbursed for these expenses if you do win your case. So if you do go forward with using this kind of arbitration, make sure you include a claim to get reimbursed in case your claim is acknowledged.
What the TOS is NOT!
The Terms of Service do not deal with new issues like identity verification, although through the TOS, Linden Lab is authorized to set any rules of behaviour they like, and publish additional sets of rules, like the Community Standards. So the changes to this TOS only concern changes to the new arbitration options.
And finally, what IS the new TOS?
In our opinion, the new TOS is what it was before, but the new changes are most probably to prevent small time lawsuits. This is not a bad thing, because it doesn't exclude any legal options for you, it just regulates more options that are available to you. Some say that this was long awaited, others are cynical or sceptical about this TOS, but those people felt the same about the old TOS too.
So if you agreed to the TOS before (which you did when you went in-world at least once), you can safely do it again now.