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Why is Buying Linden Dollars on eBay Illegal?

Apparently people are getting banned for buying Linden dollars on eBay, according to the 25 issue of the Avastar (which, by the way, should provide a download link instead of trying to force people to shove a 10 meg file in their browser - and use my full name when they quote me, once they get permission. :-P).

A quick search on eBay came up with plenty of hits for people selling Linden dollars. This begs the question - why would people buy Linden dollars on eBay on the first place? Is it that [w:Linden Lab] wants complete control over how the Linden dollar is transferred? Well, you can buy Linden dollars on SLExchange. Is it that it bypasses the Risk API, which they don't allow resident run banks to use?

And why would someone buy Lindens that way? Is it because of exchange limits which keep people from buying land? Or is it because on eBay, you can purchase things with a check or money order?

Many parts of this simply don't make sense. Why would you buy Linden dollars on eBay? Should it be a bannable offense? If it is a bannable offense - which it would appear to be, given the reporting from the Avastar... shouldn't Linden Lab make their position more publicly known?

It seems very unfair to ban people without a warning - which is the same reason why Daniel Linden is continues to get heat for THAT post. Lack of information, but lots of ambiguous words - which, apparently, Weasel-tshirt-Linden is proud of.

Throw us a bone, LL. Use that blog you have. Remember, your Terms of Service aren't legally binding. If I were painted in a corner, I'd probably be opening the communications channels...

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