Second Life under attack - LindenLab not telling the truth ?

For the best part of last two days, Second Life users have to cope with strong problems in the Linden Lab virtual world, including unability to teleport, to transfer money, to search for items, and so on.

This makes most of online activities impossible. No camping as money can't be transferred, no financial transaction, no copy of objects. All of the Sercond Life economy is blocked, and could collapse soon if this goes on !

Linden Lab reports on the official Second Life blog does not mention any cause, or specific problems. They just say they're working to solve it. This is not so usual, as normally the blog is much more detailled about what goes on, and what are the problems.

This silcence from Linden Lab, and their unability to solve the problems within reasonable time makes me think that they could be under attack from hackers. This hypothesis raises the questions who and why.

To me the answers are quite clear: gamblers, and casino owners, to protest against the stop of all gambling activities in SL ! As a revenge, or to blackmail Linden Lab, some gambling activists could try bringing it down. Remember, there were even demonstrations of protest in-world this week-end.

This hypothesis also explains why Linden Lab can not manage the problem by simply going back to a previous and more stable version. It also makes clear why they don't make any mention of the problems cause. Revealing such a vulnerability in their systems woud have a catastrophic effect on their business.

Can you imagine how bad it would be if the attackers could find a breach in the clients themselves, getting control over users computers ? It's clear that Linden Lab would not communicate on this !

Normal day, just a bit buzzish - 11'520 L$ by Ginko

I've nothing particular to report from the camping front today. Apparently the buzz about the gambling being prohibited is getting bigger and bigger.

After all my visits in Second Life, I belong to several groups, and one of them was organising a demonstration to protest against the end of gambling ! There are also a few places where the slot machines are still operating, but most of gambling places are now off.

With the present Ginko interest rate, I'm earning 15 L$ a day from them, the half of my daily objective from camping. This does not mean I can stop camping now, but it is a symbolic step for me.

I will start hunting for new campsites soon, but these days JaneLight and JohnLight are camping a lot in Petunia Island.

The gambling days are over - news about the 1'000'000 L$ lottery

It is now clearly confirmes that any gambling in Second Life is agains the Terms and Conditions of use. One indicator how serious it is is that even Ginko stopped their weekly lottery. I certainly did not visit all casinos, but I guess they all shut their slot machines down.

Another hint is that group notices for parties no longer mention any sploder. I'm even guessing if Platinum is impacted by that or not, as their camping rate is random. May be they escape the new rule because there is no need to pay to start earning.

Regarding the 1'000'000 L$ lottery I initially envisaged to do when I will have earnd my million Linden Dollars, I have to find something new. The only thing that won't change is that it will be given to one of the "Free Money from JohnLight" group.

Casinos banned from Second Life

The group was very active today, as whole of Second Life probably, because Linden Lab announced on the official blog that all gambling activities are now forbidden !

We had a long discussion about it, discussing if it was advertisment for gambling, or gambling itself. Apparently gambling is now illegal in SL, as the US law makes online casinos illegal. One interesting point was the definition of gambling as "a game one have to pay to enter and which result is chosen randomly, and prize is L$". Some were really disapointed, because this definition also cover... sploders !

Apparently Linden Lab will close such places, and remove such objects. No evidence of such activities have been seen as no member was in a casino by this time. Anyway, casino only help you to loose money, not to earn ;-). I will report later on the closure or not of all casinos.

The post also mention that local laws are applicable, which is not so clear for anyone. Another point was to know if SL is more populated by US or non-US people, and the question of moving the Linden Lab servers somewhere else has been raised, with no satisfactory answer.

The single point on which all present group members did agree is that this could have a strong impact on SecondLife economy, but we all beleive that Second Life will survive it, and business will find another way...

I'm by far not a legal expert, so if I wrote any mistake down, please correct me. Any comment are welcome on this red hot topic !

This is a bit provocative, but if casinos have to shut down, there will still be the sex industry to continue Linden Lab business !