Having sacrificed my holidays and in the midst of scripting, desperately trying to be ready before the 5th of January, I received a nasty surprise from somebody who I had not heard of before, but I figured out was the owner of the lot that Poet String arranged for our HQ.
[2009/01/01 4:57] Kerry Crabe: hello Hermit . Please be advised that the land on Garden will be resumed in the next 48hours. Sorry but i need to lease the land things are slow for me and i am loose money on that SIM THANKS and good luck
Not having the time to rebuild, and reluctant to spend the time packaging everything up, and having a lot of valuable fireworks and theatrical equipment set up, I decided to pay any reasonable rental and so I responded as soon as I got the message.
[2009/01/01 8:37] Hermit Barber: Kerry, what would the rent be?
[2009/01/01 8:37] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
After the 48 hours was already up, I received this communication.
[2009/01/03 19:28] Kerry Crabe: hello Hermit sorry its already sold
[2009/01/03 20:45] Hermit Barber: Oh, ok. I'll come and clean up then :-(
[2009/01/03 20:45] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
I proceeded to the HQ to be met with bare land. No matter what troubles Kerry Crabe may have, this action was unconsciable.
Due to time pressure, and not having the time to move things, I would have paid any reasonable rent. Had that been impossible for whatever reason, I would have captured the terrain, rescued the several thousand Lindens worth of items set out, and recreated the HQ on one of the other sims offered to us by supporters. As it is, the dozens of hours of work spent establishing the HQ are lost and I personally have losses of several thousand Linden as some expensive items have been returned in pieces and next owner permissions have kicked in on other items returned. I also need to spend several hours restoring and reorganizing the items I can rescue from my lost and found.
In the physical world this would undoubtedly result in the tenant suing the landlord and recovering damages. The fact that this is not financially worthwhile in Second Life points to one of the major reasons why SL is not yet a viable business platform and why GridRep considers the establishment of accessible legal recourse in the SL environment a matter of the highest priority. It is also why I personally will not rent land from a landlord other than Linden Lab who are at least large enough to make it worth suing them for the value of the creativity invested in projects should they destroy them.
