Plot Thickens in Second Life Scuffle

Last week’s suit, filed in W. Chester, Pa. small claims court was the tip of the iceberg, users told us. That complaint sought $8,000 in financial damages, in part for a breach of a virtual land auction contract and for violation of the state’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. Web developer and Second Life gamer Paul Coates, who has been barred from the game over a land deal, said he was putting the finishing touches on a complaint Fri. to be filed in U.S. Dist. Court, Ocala, Fla. The stakes in his suit will be higher than Bragg’s, he told us.

Coates, whose game name is “Mezentius Speculaas,” bought several plots of land in an auction, kept one and resold the rest for a profit. The cut-rate price he paid for the land was a red flag for Second Life administrators he alleges barred him from the game and confiscated the virtual property. Coates said Linden notified him by e-mail that the land had been acquired through an unauthorized exploit. He’s unsure how much real money is locked up in the game because he’s cut off from his account. The game’s currency is called “Lindens” and the conversion rate is roughly 300 Lindens for every $1. Money conversions are done through PayPal.

While Bragg told us he just wants to get his money and return to the game, Coates wants the court to ensure that Linden Lab is “disconnected from the Internet.” He contends the dispute is much wider than a few account-holders being locked out. “I'm going to see that Linden surrenders all of their computers to the courts for inspection, which includes logs,” he said: “If the courts rules in my favor, I will ask that every single employee of Linden Lab be prohibited from using a computer for the specified term” under Fla.’s computer crimes statutes. Coates called the situation a “continuing fraud” because, he said, Second Life’s owners know “innocent people come up to these auctions, bid on them and get the auctions and believe they were legitimate.”

Second Life player Don Spencer, known online as “Thunder Lardner,” is equally miffed. He was also barred from the game after buying cheap land in an auction and selling it, he told us. Before bidding on the plot, he sent a message to the game’s administrators asking if the price was right. They simply wished him luck in his auction, essentially giving him the green light to bid, he said. Once Spencer had the property, he was blocked from the game and accused of getting the land by hacking the site. “I was accused of being a hacker. I was accused of exploiting their system, when all I did was follow their rules. Then they want to turn around and screw me,” Spencer said. Linden’s rules call for a 5-day investigation into incidents like these, he said. But it’s been 11 days with no word from the company, Spencer said.

About $1,800 is trapped in an account he can’t get into, said Spencer, a Fla. minister: “I can’t touch my money. I can’t go into the game. I can’t play… I don’t cheat. I don’t lie. I don’t steal. I don’t know how much more honest they want someone to be.” His wife’s Second Life account has been frozen, too, because she posted Spencer’s complaints on the game’s community forums, he alleged. Some members of the 3-dimensional Web world have slammed Spencer for being a hacker, and he hasn’t been able to defend himself, he said. “Linden Lab is letting the people on the forums eat us alive,” he said. There are countless others who've done nothing wrong and are being shut down, Spencer added.

The growing controversy could hurt Second Life in the long run, Spencer warned: “Two years from now, nobody’s going to remember these auctions but they're going to remember Linden Lab’s response to them.”