I recently opened an expanded Mises Institute outpost in Second Life. If you’re a SL user, please feel free to stop in and take a look around. (The in-world location is slurl.com/secondlife/Vacuul/143/141/21). My thanks to all the users who have already joined our Mises Second Life Group. I’ll post further updates at the Mises Institute SL blog in the Mises Community.
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Nice digs!
“If you’re a SL user”
There’s ONE good reason why I am not a SL user, their EULA. End User License Agreement.
I actually read it from beginning to end and what’s written in there is absolutely scary and revolting.
To sum things up, their EULA basically says that Linden Labs is God, they can terminate your account anytime for any reason even for no reason, that everything you do is Linden Lab’s property, that all your Linden Dollars are in fact the property of Linden Labs and can be claimed back by them anytime they want for any reason even for no reason and that they can claim additional compensation from you for any reason even for no reason.
You could be doing everything right and you could be hit by a real claim in real US dollars simply because Linden Labs decided to claim you real US dollars for “no reason” like it’s stated in their EULA.
Linden Labs has actually made a miracle, they succeeded at making a contract which is worse than marriage and puts their users at a much higher financial risk than marriage.
If you read the EULA carefully from beginning to the end, you will realize that you own nothing, Linden Labs owns everything, that you don’t own your Linden Dollars and that Linden Labs can claim any additional compensation for any reason even for no reason. You agreed to this by clicking “yes” on their EULA button.
So you basically agree to be owned by Linden Labs, that’s why I refused to join Second Life.
I would say those long agreements written in covert language you sign every time you want to use some software are all null of any effect. A “good man” would reject them. You can’t sign what you don’t understand. Indeed, you can’t sign what you dont read because it is unreadable. That is why I sort of agree with Rothbard that ones cannot submit himself to slavement by contract.
I am pretty much in agreement with the poster above. As far as I know, none of those “by clicking here you agree” EULAs have held up in court for anything outrageous like you describe here (or really for anything that I know of, actually…but I may be behind on current case law).
I don’t know if it will hold up in court or not, but the outrageous things that I described are written exactly as I describe them, they are written exactly like that in the EULA, it really is outrageous. I don’t care if it doesn’t hold up in court, I was insulted and outraged by what was written in the EULA, so I decided to boycott Second Life.
Agreed on the EULA. I’m not a member of SL, nor Facebook for the same reasons.
However, what’s with the square, modernist, architecture? The socialist geometry of Bauhaus is undignified for a centre devoted to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The LvMI should at least reside in a Romanesque villa or, better yet, a Bavarian castle.
^ agreed!
How can geometry be socialist? Just curious. I do like the Romanesque villa idea though.
There are no politics involved when speaking of geometry in the strictest mathematical sense, of course. I’m only referring to architectural geometry. I believe it is appropriate to call the square shapes of modernism “socialist”, since the cold architecture has but one purpose: to destroy individualism and promote collectivism.
By using the square geometry, people themselves are, in effect, turned into bricks. Bricks are the essence of conformity. It is no wonder that constructivism was the preferred style in the Soviet Union after the revolution. Socialism not only kills people, but also beauty.
Congrats on the new “location”. I believe the SL community will be a big challenge for the LvM. Despite the Linden EULA (which I’ve never seen enforced except for those breaking actual real world laws or actively disrupting the experience of other members – you are after all on Linden servers (their property)), the general SL community is very open to ideas and discussion. There is definitely an understanding of property and commerce there.
I wish you the best of luck.
Love the Hoppe Poster
Here was the old one:
A Second Life for the Mises Institute
This you won’t believe
Where is Momma Goldberg?
I know someone with a Masters degree in Ed. Tech. whose thesis explored the possibilities of virtual education within Second Life. She’s also a big Mises Institute fan, so I’ll forward this to her.
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