"The main reason the new policy effectively bans skillgaming in sl for 95+% of gameroom owners is the application process and its requirements. If it were -just- the $100 application fee, that could be absorbed. If it were -just- the raise in tier costs for gaming sims, it could be absorbed.. but what absolutely cannot be absorbed is the attorney fees and retainers assiociated with obtaining written legal opinions on each game a game room has. There is dozens of variety of games in SL, and not only do the creators have to pay an attorney for this service, but the policy states the operator must as well. This is -Impossible- for any operator to provide, unless they are also the game's creator. Attorneys deal in facts, and any legitimate attorney will not give an opinion unless its based in known fact. As a gameroom operator, I rely COMPLETLY on the creator to affirm that the game complies with SL TOS. It is Impossible for me to know FOR A FACT that it does or not, because I do not have access to the source code. This is a common sense problem and its a huge flaw in the gaming policy. Operators SHOULD not have to pay huge attorney fees to get legal letters written thus making startup cost prohibitive. Operators CAN not be expected to supply legal opinions from attorneys about virtual inworld goods that they do not have access to the source code, and thus cannot verify the wether a game has 'a material part' of chance/skill. They simply dont have enough evidence to make that kind of determination."
I completely agree with Octavia !
This new TOS must be a draft. Linden Lab should start reviewing their new TOS and reading the last comments. It is not with the same copy/paste of the community manager that the situation will change.
Therefore I advise that NO OPERATORS request a licence until we get an official answer from LINDEN on this forum about the questions raised and the review of the TOS !