Who Is Alex Potato? And Who Pays Him?
Submitted by Taran on Sat, 02/17/2007 - 12:51
In the process of Cleaning Ear within SecondLife, I've run into an odd one. A fellow named Alex Potato. His ads were leaking onto my property, so I IM'd him to let him know- and I just saw him fixing it. I'd also offered him 600L for the 32m square. He found the price low - though market value for a 512m plot at 7500L would show that my offer for a 32m square was more than fair.
But I noticed something funny about his ads yesterday - even before he came over, even before he mocked me and told me to look out the window to see his ad anyway (not realizing that anyone can see in, but no one can see out. Before he muted me, and before I muted him.
Before he set the land for sale at $9,950 Linden to extort people who don't want to see his ads.
What's so funny about the ads?
Well, what is funny is what they do. If you click the ads, they take you to different places as they rotate through - different simulators, businesses, etc - Dell Computer, Toyota, Sun Microsystems, CNET Networks, Adidas, Reebok...
And...
Linden Lab supports the use of 16m and 32m plots for ads used to be eyesores on the landscape? Linden Labs supports extortionist land prices to remove the eye sores? Or maybe this is an abuse?
I don't know which. But here's what I do know:
(1) The ad signs were made by Share Holder.
(2) The ad signs are owned by Alex Potato.
And I'm pretty sure no one has authorized this fellow to do what he is doing with their trademarks and copyrights. It seems that the business model is 'Annoy, Extort, Profit!"
Here's some pics:
Governor Linden Pays Alex Potato?
IBM pays Alex Potato?
Radio Linden pays Alex Potato?
Look where I ended up. Hmm.
Very interesting character, Alex Potato - very powerful fellow, it would seem. Able to use all of these different brand names to try to force people to pay extremely high land prices just to make him go away.
It would seem that we have a new Potato bug.
Or maybe
place another sign dwarfing Mr Potatohead's sign, perhaps a nice landscape or something?
I don't know if it can be done....
but wouldn't it be great to cover each of those nauseating signs with a plain brown paper bag?
Got your email...
will just briefly confirm that no, Radio Linden certainly doesn't pay for ad spots like this. Mistakenly referring to "Pooley Stage" as a "Community Center", which it clearly is not, doesn't help either. This is *not* officially sanctioned by Linden Lab.
Cool :-)
Thanks Torley
Well, Linden Lab isn't protecting its Trademark.
The guy's still there. You know, Torley, its one thing to say Linden Lab doesn't pay for spots like this - it is quite another to have the spots persisting after that.
I've filed numerous abuse reports after asking people to move their ads so that they don't intrude on my land. I've been abused for asking them to do that. So...umm... whats going on with all of these little 16m freaks? Do they believe that they have some special rights?
They must have. They're still intruding on spaces - weeks later. Hmm. Make a pass through Ear sometime.
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