Sion’s Surprise Chicken License Fouls The Nest

by Alphaville Herald on 15/08/09 at 8:21 pm

Sion Labs may revoke your right to continue paying for virtual chicken food

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

A Second Life chicken food monopoly is apparently not enough for Sion Zaius – the latest Sion Labs chickens include a surprise End User License Agreement that remains hidden until *after* your purchase. The stealth EULA grants Sion Labs rights that would make most greedheads blush — but not Mr. Zauis.

Sionscam While the lucrative chicken food market is claimed to feed over 100,000 chickens,  Mr. Zauis may be motivated by threats of legal action from farmers who suffered serious losses after Sion Labs released a botched update that destroyed farmers’ eggs.

According to The Chicken Blog, at least one farmer threatened legal action against Zaius for alleged fraud, and Mr. Zaius threatened to cut of food supplies to all farmers’ birds unless the critic apologized. Eventually cooler heads prevailed, and mass chicken starvation was avoided.

But now critical farmers are no longer an issue – the EULA states Sion Labs can terminate farmers’ chicken-use rights “for any reason or no reason” and restrict access to any and all Sion Products “by blacklisting you and any known alts and/or partners without notice or liability”.

In the event Sion Labs feels the need to reclaim birds, they grant themselves the right to do so “without compensation of any kind for any object or product removed, destroyed, killed or in any way removed from your possession”. Fowl fanciers must also agree to upgrade their chickens within 7 days when new versions are released or face “immediate, automatic termination of the license granted hereunder and may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability”.

After spending L$440 on a sionChicken starter set and reading the EULA, I contacted Sion Labs for a refund. I’m still waiting.

Pixeleen Mistral: I bought a chicken start kit – but it didn't say there was a license agreement until AFTER I paid for it
Pixeleen Mistral: I do not agree with the license terms – and I want my money back

Sion1

GreenShamrock McMahon: that's fine hun, if you don't agree with it you can return the unopened box and I can refund your money, if you can send me the transaction details for that purchase on a note card and teh set, i will refund it
GreenShamrock McMahon: the v11 set is not controlled by the EULA and there is a v11 vendor at the Boardman sim location if you are interested in that

Pixeleen Mistral: why do I have to send you the transaction details?
Pixeleen Mistral: your company should already know that I bought the chicken starter kit
GreenShamrock McMahon: so I can see when it was purchased, the sim, the vendor owner, the date and time and I can prove to my boss that I actually refunded a purchase
GreenShamrock McMahon: I am an employee, I don't have access to Sion's personal account

Pixeleen Mistral: how long is it going to take to get my refund?
GreenShamrock McMahon: once I have the information and have time to go to the server, it will be sent, I am busy just now

Pixeleen Mistral: why don't you tell people before they buy about the license – you could save all this run around
GreenShamrock McMahon: hun I am very sorry for your inconvenience but I am just an employee

Pixeleen Mistral: ok, the transaction info is:
Date: 08/15/2009 01 Payment
Description: sionChicken vendor V12
Region: Boardman
Destination: Sion Zaius

Pixeleen Mistral: it was L$440
GreenShamrock McMahon: can I have the transaction number please
Pixeleen Mistral: 1844830385
GreenShamrock McMahon: thank you and can you return the item please

Sion4

Pixeleen Mistral: how do I return it?
GreenShamrock McMahon: drop it to me like any other inventory item to my profile

Pixeleen Mistral: but then I won’t have my money OR the starter kit
Pixeleen Mistral: you can already deactivate the chicken remotely
GreenShamrock McMahon: no hun I can't, I am not the creator and the chickens don't run on a server, can you sent the unused stater set please and I can issue you a refund

Pixeleen Mistral: so you don't trust me enough to give me my refund before I return the un-opened starter kit…
GreenShamrock McMahon: it has nothing to do with trust, Sion Labs is a very large company and they have policies I must follow

Pixeleen Mistral: but I don't trust a company that has an unconscionable license agreement for virtual chickens that they spring on the buyer AFTER they paid their money
Pixeleen Mistral: this whole thing seems like a scam to me
GreenShamrock McMahon: with over 10,000 customers, Sion is not interested in scamming anyone

Sion7

Pixeleen Mistral: with a monopoly on chicken feed, Sion ought to be able to risk L$440 on retaining a good reputation
GreenShamrock McMahon: Sion is the creator of the chickens and the creator of the food, of course he is the only one that can feed them, there are no creators in SL that give their creations for accessories to other people, not even in clothing, you want pants to match your jacket, you go back to where you bought the jacket from, you don't go to their competitor to buy their designs

Pixeleen Mistral: my SL clothes didn't come with a hidden End User License Agreement that granted all the rights to the creator
Pixeleen Mistral: I wonder what exactly SionChicken "owners" are buying other then the right to pay Sion for chicken feed forever
GreenShamrock McMahon: hun I spend 16 hours a day doing this, I will note card all of this and send it to Sion when he returns in world, I have to follow procedures and policies set out by Sion Labs, I'm an employee not an owner or creator, I am very sorry you have been so inconvenienced, have a wonderful day and be safe

Pixeleen Mistral: I still want my refund
GreenShamrock McMahon: then send the starter set

Pixeleen Mistral: you can have the unopened box AFTER you refund me
GreenShamrock McMahon: no sorry hun, you can wait for Sion's return then, I have to follow company policies

Pixeleen Mistral: when will he be back?
Pixeleen Mistral: how long am I going to wait?
GreenShamrock McMahon: Sion is moving today in RL, I would expect he'll be here on Monday
Pixeleen Mistral: amazing

Sion3

PARCEL sionChicken set: Hello. You have to agree to the Sion LabsEnd User License Agreement. A copy is being sent to you right now.

PARCELsionChicken set: Left-Click this box or take its contents ONLY if youagree to to the terms stated in the EULA! You will then receive theproducts you have purchased.

PARCEL sionChicken set: Message of the Day: sionCorn has been released!

PARCELsionChicken set owned by Pixeleen Mistral gave you 'DOC Sion Labs EndUser License Agreement'  (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hyperborea/137/139/21 ).

 PARCELsionChicken set: You did not agree to the EULA. Please contact SionLabsfor a refund IMMEDIATELY! Do not modify the contects of this box.

Sion2

End User License Agreement
    Effective August 2nd, 2009

YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT BEFORE PURCHASING, USING, OWNING, SELLING, OR TRANSFERING ANY OBJECTS CREATED BY SION ZAIUS. BY OWNING, TRANSFERING, OR OTHERWISE USING THESE PRODUCTS, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, PLEASE CONTACT SION LABS TO ARRANGE THE RETURN OF THE PRODUCTS PURCHASED FROM SION ZAIUS OR CONTACT THE PERSON YOU PURCHASED HIS PRODUCTS FROM FOR A FULL REFUND IMMEDIATELY UPON READING THIS AGRREMENT AND BEFORE ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES ARE USED.

This agreements covers, but is not limited to, sionChickens and all accessories Version Sub 12 (V12) or higher, sionCorn and all accessories, any and all future creations, projects, products, services, accessories, etc … created by Sion Zaius and/or Sion Labs, it's agents, employees, representatives or official associates and all objects owned, controlled, licensed, recognized as, etc … of Sion Zaius and/or Sion Labs (herein called Sion Products). These Sion Products are distributed solely for use of authorized end users according to the terms of the License Agreement. Any use, reproduction or redistribution of these prodcucts not expressly authorized by the terms of the License Agreement is expressly prohibited.

1. Ownership.

     A. All title, ownership rights, products (in whole or in part),  products contents, manuals, and intellectual property rights in and to the Sion Products and all copies thereof (including, but not limited to, any titles, computer code, artwork, designs, scripts, any related documentation, and sounds incorporated into the products) are owned or expressly licensed by Licensor. These Sion Products are protected by the copyright laws including, international copyright treaties and conventions, and other laws. All rights are reserved. Sion Products may contain certain licensed or unlicensed materials, and the licensors of those materials may enforce their rights in the event of any violation of this License Agreement.

     B. Each license purchased for Sion Products allows the objects to be used in Second life only. You may not copy or use these Sion Products on another domains, sites, virtual worlds, etc … without obtaining, in advance, a new license for the new domain and/or express permission from Sion Zaius or his official representative. You may only transfer ownership of the products and all parts thereof, and all of your rights and obligations under the License Agreement, to another domain or owner, if that person also agrees to the terms and conditions of this License Agreement. You must include a copy of this license agreement when transferring ownership of any Sion Product and unsure agreement is obtained. In this case Sion Labs will issue a license for the new owner once it has been established that they agree to abide by this agreement.

2. Responsibilities of End User.

Subject to the Grant of License herein above, you may not, in whole or in part, copy, duplicate, reproduce, exploit, reverse engineer, derive source code, modify, disassemble, decompile, or create derivative works based on Sion Products, or remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Sion Products, including but not limited to template files, sculpties, sounds, animations and script files, which may not be modified for use on the domain specified in part 1 only. You may not sell, or in any way, transfer items or products that result from bugs, glitches, exploits, rollbacks or otherwise obtained products not intended or obtained in the intended manner  and in doing so will constitute a breech of this agreement. Further you agree to update any and all products and accessories within 1 week (7 calendar days) of an update release and ensure you only use the current release. Failure to comply with the restrictions and limitations contained in this Section 2 shall result in immediate, automatic termination of the license granted hereunder and may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may make one (1) copy of this License and the Manuals for archival purposes only.

3. Termination.

This License Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate the License Agreement at any time by (i) removing all Sion Products from your inventory and in world resources, land, etc…; and (ii) notifying Licensor of your intention to terminate this License Agreement. Licensor may, at its discretion, terminate this License agreement in the event that you fail to comply with the terms and conditions contained herein or for any reason or no reason at all. In such event, you must immediately remove all Sion Products from your possession both in world or in inventory and/or  you agree that Sion Zaius or his representative and/or agent will remove them without compensation of any kind for any object or product removed, destroyed, killed or in any way removed from your possession. Upon termination of this Agreement for any reason, all licenses granted herein shall immediately terminate.

4. Limitation of Liability.

NEITHER LICENSOR NOR ITS REPRESENTATIVE AND/OR AGENT, SUBSIDIARIES OR AFFILIATES SHALL BE LIABLE IN ANY WAY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THE SION PRODUCTS, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF EGGS, CHICKENS, CORNCOBS, PLANTS, ACCESSORIES, PARTS, PIECES, OR OBJECTS OF ANY KIND, LOSS OF GOODWILL, LOST INCOME, SIM PERFORMANCE INCLUDING LAG, PRODUCT GLITCHES OR MALFUNCTION, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, OR ANY AND ALL OTHER DAMAGES OR LOSSES. FURTHER, LICENSOR SHALL NOT BE LIABLE IN ANY WAY FOR THE LOSS OR DAMAGE TO PRODUCTS, DESIGNS, TEMPLATES, ARTWORK, SCRIPTS, PRICING AND OTHER INFORMATION STORED BY THE SION PRODUCTS. LICENSOR SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INTERRUPTIONS OF SERVICE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ROLLBACKS, RESTARTS, GRID CRASHES, OR ANY OTHER EVENT WHICH MAY RESULT IN A LOSS OF SION PRODUCTS OR ACCESSORIES LOST FROM IN WORLD, INVENTORY, OR OTHERWISE THE POSSESSION OF THE USER. IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES.

5. Equitable Remedies.

You hereby agree that Licensor would be irreparably damaged if the terms of this License Agreement were not specifically enforced, and therefore you agree that Licensor shall be entitled, without bond, other security, or proof of damages, to appropriate equitable remedies with respect to breaches of this License Agreement, in addition to such other remedies as Licensor may otherwise have available to it under applicable laws. In the event any litigation is brought by either party in connection with this License Agreement, the prevailing party in such litigation shall be entitled to recover from the other party all the costs, attorneys' fees and other expenses incurred by such prevailing party in the litigation.

6. Changes to the Agreement.

Sion Labs reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to change, modify, add to, supplement or delete any of the terms and conditions of this License Agreement when Sion Labs upgrades the Sion Products, effective upon notice as follows: Sion Labs will post notification of any such changes to this License Agreement on the Sion Labs Update Group notices and will post the revised version of this License Agreement in this location, and may provide such other notice as Sion Labs may elect in its sole discretion, which may include by group notice, website or pop-up screen.

If any future changes to this License Agreement are unacceptable to you or cause you to no longer be in compliance with this License Agreement, you may terminate this License Agreement in accordance with Section 3 herein. Your acceptance and use of any updated or modified versions of Sion Products  or your continued use of the Sion Products following notice of changes to this Agreement as described above will mean you accept any and all such changes. Sion Labs may change, modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the Sion Products at any time and for any reason or no reason at all. Sion Labs may also impose limits on certain features or restrict your access to parts or all of the Sion Products by blacklisting you and any known alts and/or partners without notice or liability. You have no interest, monetary or otherwise, in any feature or content contained in the Sion Products.

7. Miscellaneous.

This License Agreement shall be deemed to have been made and executed within the Second Life community without regard to conflicts of law provisions, and any dispute arising hereunder shall be resolved in accordance with, but not limited to, the law of Linden Lab. You agree that any claim asserted in any legal proceeding by one of the parties against the other shall be commenced and maintained within the Second Life community but is not limited to in world only, having subject matter jurisdiction with respect to the dispute between the parties. In the event that any provision of this License Agreement shall be held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable, such provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and the remaining portions of this License Agreement shall remain in full force and effect. This License Agreement constitutes and contains the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes any prior oral or written agreements.

I hereby acknowledge that I have read and understand the foregoing License Agreement and agree that the action of buying, possessing, selling, transferring, or in anyway having any direct or indirect involvement of Sion Products is an acknowledgment of my agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of the License Agreement contained herein.

© 2009 Sion Labs All rights reserved. All rights are reserved.

35 Responses to “Sion’s Surprise Chicken License Fouls The Nest”

  1. Sleven Hathaway

    Aug 15th, 2009

    Yep, that is typical Sion tactics. I have had a problem with the guy and the company ever since he came to my sim and told my tenants that his scripts were not functioning properly because of the way in which I did not maintain my region. I am a scripter and I would NEVER blame a region for massive failures in my systems. That is just a blame passing cop out. Sion does not run a reputable business.

  2. J

    Aug 15th, 2009

    I see this person doesnt lik Sion or the products he has created. I think they are magnificent and i understand how hard hes worked on it to make it more realistic for everyone. I agree with the EULA because every product in rL HAS A KIND OF LAW TO IT SO IF ANYONE TRIES TO MANIPULATE OR COPY IT IN ANY WAY HE HAS LAW ON HIS SIDE.
    If you dont like his products stop whinning and leave it to the people who do love it.

  3. Silly

    Aug 15th, 2009

    This was posted with her permission right,..if not it is a TOS violation

  4. Susan Tsuki

    Aug 15th, 2009

    Oh my head hurts! Why do they have to make cute fuzzy little SL cartoon chickens have so much real life work-like EULA crap. BOYCOTT TYSON CHICKEN UNTIL SINGLE PAYER H.R. 676 PASSES!

  5. Maggie Darwin

    Aug 16th, 2009

    Always knew these damned things sounded retarded.

    Now it’s confirmed. Food you must keep rebuying is a “accessory”?

  6. Ann Otoole

    Aug 16th, 2009

    WTF is this shit: “the law of Linden Lab”

    This asshole is why LL has to change the policies to drive out the fucktard class that never finished 8th grade. LL is not a government rofl. LL can’t make “law”. jeez.

    OK I can’t resist anymore….

    If 10,000 people filed a complaint at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ I suspect the sion chicken guy would be eliminated from SL with an emotionless press of a delete key at Linden Lab.

  7. Farmetta Gunster

    Aug 16th, 2009

    Let’s not forget Sion’s poor history of customer service. Simple things like marking all of the products with the version number, whenever there is an upgrade, would have helped a lot. Testing the upgrades on a flock all the way through breeding behaviour, in the kinds of environments where the customers actually keep these birds, before releasing them, is simple common sense. For instance, a recent version was rolled out with a “water allergy”…so chickens kept on the ground close to groundwater levels simply froze, quit eating, and died. It took an upgrade to the upgrade to keep more birds from dying; simple acknowledgement of the issue would have solved a lot of farmers’ problems. And..the upgrades were happeneing during a wave of chicken killings, so noone knew whether it was Sion upgrades or griefers killing the chickens.

    The EULA requires chicken farmers to upgrade their chickens within a week of any new release. In the most recent releases, that is still within the timeframe that deadly bugs in the new upgrades were being discovered.

    And, in the EULA, Sion gets to blacklist a customer with no notice, and with no proof of damages required. So, as the sole supplier of food, egg proteggtors, and transport boxes, he gets to decide whose chickens live and whose die. There is no small claims court in SL, and the EULA absolves his company of any harm anyway. The company could decide that you have broken their rules,and with no due process of any sort, refuse to sell you the food necessary to keep your birds alive, and by refusing to recognize the transfer of your licensed property to anyone else, make you unable to recover any of the value of your birds, breeding stock, and other Sion products.

    The typical attitude of a few farmers is “Oh, that EULA is for bad guys. it won’t apply to me.” More casual users don’t even look at it, or have no idea what it means anyway. The rest of us, who have lived thru several Sion upgrades, are not so happy. More than a few farmers will refuse to adopt V12 and will eventually be forced to get out of Sion chickens when feed is no longer available.

  8. LOL

    Aug 16th, 2009

    For all you SL Chicken Farmers, here is another pet you may be intrested in.

    http://www.squidoo.com/petrock

  9. Jessica Holyoke

    Aug 16th, 2009

    1. Re-posting a note card would never ever be a ToS violation on the SL Grid.
    2. Re-posting the note card would never ever be a ToS violation outside of the SL Grid.
    3. Re-posting the contract in a journalistic setting like this would be a fair use defense to copyright infringement.

    Sometimes you have to stop accepting everything any company would tell you. Like any law enforcement agency will go after an alleged infringer because they didn’t update the license like they should have.

    If you think I’m wrong, prove it.

  10. Jessica Holyoke

    Aug 16th, 2009

    Now that I’m thinking about it some more, its possible to be ToS violation for reprinting the notecard under a general copyright violation heading if you are on the grid.

  11. Rawst Berry

    Aug 16th, 2009

    The surprise license is an underhanded tactic, but getting all upset because they won’t refund your money until you give them a box is a little silly…

    I also own a store, and when someone requests an item as a gift from me, they pay first and then I send the item. I guess its not a written rule or anything, but it seems like common sense that a business has nothing to gain by screwing you out of your money like this. In any case, he is only following the guidelines set down by his boss. You’re being unnecessarily difficult.

  12. Debi Dastardly

    Aug 16th, 2009

    This is why I wont upgrade to V12 and got on a group chat last week and gave all 56 chickens away if some one didn’t take them I would have just sent them to the great sl chicken coup in the sky. Its nice that Sion made something so unique that held my interest for a short time but I realized real quick that he expects us to pay top Ls for his products and doesn’t like the idea of the customer are his constituents and we are we vote with our wallets everyday. So goodbye chickens and Sion Labs I think this will go the way of a lot of other things such as mood rings and so on.

  13. Darien Caldwell

    Aug 16th, 2009

    LL’s TOS doesn’t extend beyond their own servers. They aren’t a real-world governing body. They are a game company. (and I’m being kind)

    And yes, put me in the “why would someone pay for this thing, it’s retarded” group. I never ‘got’ Tamigochis either.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi

  14. Professor C

    Aug 16th, 2009

    I wanted to add my two cents in on this.

    @ Supporters of Sion Labs

    You pay for the chicken then have to buy food repeatedly. Pouring more and more money into the things. You have a chance of making money with breeding rare chickens but now you can be banned from feeding your chickens for no reason at all? Speaking from the standpoint of the ‘employee’ it’s semi understandable that he not give a refund until the product is returned. Can’t fault him there but the entire idea that there is no knowledge of an agreement until after you send over your money and that you can have everything you have built up and worked for just taken from you without warning just screams out scam.

    Of course if you don’t mind the risk of losing that much money especially after the (Malicious?) egg destruction update then you go right ahead and spend your money. Hey it’s your fun and people still play World of Warcraft.

  15. DJQuad Radio

    Aug 16th, 2009

    Pixeleen, return the starter kit if you want your money back. Why is that so difficult to understand?

  16. Kris Dibou

    Aug 16th, 2009

    hehehehe…Hey Pix- don’t count your chickens before they hatch :)

  17. Farmetta Gunster

    Aug 16th, 2009

    Oh, also, whenever complaints are made to one of the customer service folks by someone I know, they alwasy answer…”we never heard of that problem.” if there was ONE PLACE where problems could be noted and discussed, it would be good for everyone. but that would be too much customer service. A person could go look to see if their issue was already being addressed, and could ge info on how to fix it. it was several weeks after the V11 various upgrades before the “Troubleshooting food stuff” card got sent out. weeks of chickens dying.

  18. Madeline Blackbart

    Aug 17th, 2009

    Wow… that’s worse than real life corporations. I can’t imagine that document is ACTUALLY legal. After all even products you buy like consoles are technically owned by the purchaser. You can’t keep ownership rights. I understand keeping the right to cancel at any moment. Or copyrighting the coding and art work associated with the product. But once someone buys the product you don’t have ownership of it anymore.
    What I mean is if for instance I own a psp (which I do). I legal have ownership of it. Sony can’t decided they want it back (unless it’s actually unhealthy for me and is being recalled) even if I complain about it. as a psp owner I CAN use hacks on it as long as I PERSONALLY didn’t make them because I OWN IT. Also they are generally required to repair it within a certain amount of time. LEGALLY REQUIRED. Some states even make it illegal to EVER not agree to repair it. And we’re talking about a REAL HUGE corporation not one on Second Life which in reality could never be as huge. I mean that’s just an example but I think if the law makes Sony hold those kind of standards this kind of thing won’t go over well in court.
    That’s the problem with buying ANYTHING now IRL of Second Life everyone likes to hide behind fine print. Well, whatever if people don’t mind being treated like crap by some guy hiding behind the skirts of fine print then let them. It’s not the problem of those who won’t feed into it. I figure if enough people decided not to be treated that way anymore places like this will simply go out of business.

  19. HallelvienLindsay

    Aug 17th, 2009

    Personally I think it is someone making a mockery of SL business. Businesspeople in SL strive to be taken seriously, and to be respected within their community and beyond, so reputation is incredibly important. Sion has blown his all to hell.

    He’s charging people unthinkable sums of money for a Chicken that walks around and lays an egg. They’re not pretty, the do nothing interactive, they are plain and simple one HUGE money sink for those paying to play.

    Maybe people used to make money off of it but they aren’t anymore. He totally killed that by making all the eggs the same. I began playing when they promised that “Each Egg would be unique! One of a kind!” And then i found out everyone already had the same eggs of all the same colors and the world of SL was saturated with them. And the chickens themselves.. are all ugly white and green. The color of the egg is only the feather and tail. Majorly disappointing.

    Nobody is buying these things anymore, and the few that want to throw their Lindens his way, more power to them. But hey, I’ll flap my arms and cluck around myself if they pay me thousands of Lindens a week!

    I’m glad you didn’t adhere to his amazingly asinine EULA. He seems to have forgotten he is in a virtual world, and he can’t impose something like that without any licensing himself first and foremost. The only thing that covers him is Linden Lab TOS which protects his intellectual properties. Otherwise, the prims those chickens are made of Belong to Linden Lab. He MAY NOT attempt to utilize some internal legal device without Linden Lab permission in-world. He MAY NOT attempt to exercise any authority over ANY Second Life subscribers by enforcing his own terms. And if he screws over a great many in the community who are paying him – LONG TERM – for his services and he renegs, each and every one of those Chicken people have recourse through Linden Lab to fire off Abuse Reports against Sion for fraud is he so much as attempts to act on any of his EULA bull.

    Anyone who agrees to that EULA is nothing more than an enable of someone who got waaay to big for their britches and has let the greed go to his head.

    It is great scheme for only Sion, nobody else.

  20. Orion Shamroy

    Aug 17th, 2009

    Legal action for a _TOY_ that costs round about $0.50usd? Pathetic.

  21. Pappy Enoch

    Aug 17th, 2009

    Hell with it all. Kill them chikkins n’ fry ‘em up. Grow some corn instead an’ we’ll make first-rate fake Shine.

    Then ol’ Dr. Zaius (that damn dirty ape) will go broke and some other rascal (me) will step in to take money from y’all with another scam.

    Last point: Don’t mess wif no gal named Eula. Every gal I met name o’ Eula am hell on rollerskates.

  22. cookin sion chicken

    Aug 18th, 2009

    OK HERE IS THE BEST SION CHICKEN SONG:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFvD2C9yq6s

  23. IntLibber Brautigan

    Aug 18th, 2009

    Obviously there should be a refund system that automatically refunds you when you drop the box into a sion prim set to allow inventory drops. Perhaps making a script capable of inventorying contents of another object may be a serious technical hurdle.

    However, Pix, this is SL, no sane content creator would issue a refund until after they get the goods back. Doing otherwise is an easy way to go broke.

    Sleven, region health is a major problem for script performance, likewise the number of scripts in a region is the major reason for poor region performance. Maxing a sim with avies pimped out with tons of poorly scripted crap is also a recipe for serious lag issues. Any responsible estate owner should limit script time to less than 1 millisecond per 4k sqm of land.

    The only real issue with the EULA is that its unenforceable because it claims jurisdiction as the LL TOS, which as the judge in the bragg case stated, is ‘legally unconsionable’. Sion needs to cite a specific real world jurisdiction (like his home province or county), or an estate willing to provide ajudication services. LL specifically refuses to get involved in contract disputes between residents.

  24. Wyrdwolf

    Aug 18th, 2009

    Quite simply, the customer should be made aware of the EULA before any money changes virtual hands. Anything less is misleading.

    By behaving in this way, Sion Labs are leaving people (correctly in my opinion) with the simple conclusion that they are operating a scam.

    Anyway, I can’t think of anything more ridiculous to spend money on.

  25. At0m0 Beerbaum

    Aug 18th, 2009

    Sounds like Linden Labs’ TOS.

  26. IntLibber Brautigan

    Aug 19th, 2009

    “Quite simply, the customer should be made aware of the EULA before any money changes virtual hands. Anything less is misleading.” – Wyrdwolf

    Well that’s a fair criticism, however the script system doesnt really make implementing such a vending system at all easy. When you pay is there a way to agree to a EULA or receive a refund before getting the goods in your inventory? I’m not aware of one, but such is needed by many merchants.

    FWIW, my interactions with Sion Zaius indicate to me that he’s both very interested in improving his product and service, but he is also very very buried in a hole of IM attention from many people and has a commercial tiger by the tail. I don’t believe he is disingenuous, but the normal SL ranting class will still have its way.

  27. chicken-hawk

    Aug 20th, 2009

    I shoot those chickens ever time I see them. I’m a chicken-hawk and I eat chickens.

  28. Kabalyero

    Aug 20th, 2009

    Raising chickens is a lucrative hobby in Second Life. If you wish to make money then create gadgets and devices for all those chicken farmers. :)

  29. Antonius Misfit

    Aug 21st, 2009

    Now I’m even more glad I decided against getting sucked into this “second coming of Tamagotchis”. I teleported to a farm last night to observe these things in action. The farm owner teleported in, and literally within two seconds of me simply saying “Hi”, I got ejected and banned. Pretty rude, right? Well, guess who owned that farm? Prokofy Neva. No further explanation needed.

    Here’s a question that I would love to see answered: Are there any competitors to Sion’s chickens in SL? If so then there would be a market for Sion refugees, and also offer a choice instead of a chicken monopoly to Sion.

  30. Farmetta Funster

    Aug 21st, 2009

    Ah, well, a simple sign with a notecard giver warning about the EULA, no purchase required, at the ONE Sion store in all of SL would improve things immeasurably. Perhaps such a thing has been added..but it wasn’t there last week.

  31. Prof. Archie Lukas

    Aug 23rd, 2009

    Warning Will Robinson………..
    AVOID
    AVOID
    AVOID
    AVOID
    AVOID
    AVOID

  32. Phox

    Aug 23rd, 2009

    It’s very simple, when someone pays the vendor, rather than deliver the product, you deliver the EULA via notecard, and present a dialog “Do you agree to the EULA?” If they click yes, they get the starter kit, if they click no, they get a refund.

    Simple, and easy to do in LSL.

  33. Antonius Misfit

    Aug 25th, 2009

    @Phox: That solves the “surprise” aspect of the EULA, but even with that there’s still questions of whether the EULA is legally enforcable. Sion should have his EULA scrutinized by an experienced copyright lawyer and change it before someone gets sharp and challenges it.

  34. LInda

    Jan 9th, 2010

    I have had difficulty with the Sion Chicken lack of service as well.

    Another chicken ended up ‘dead but relivable.’ This was happening almost daily to one or more of my chickens. I went and got another healing kit – at L90 each. (I have had to use over 20 of these so far.)

    I changed my tag to the group, rezzed it, opened it and rezzed the ‘medicine.’ Nothing happened. Not one thing. Wait, yes one thing did happen. The ‘healing kit’ was used up and the chicken was still dead.

    I talked to Sion’s representative who asked me what the chicken’s last words were. I have no idea what it ‘said’ as I muted that spam a long time ago. So their response was that they would not refund my L 90. I pay 1000′s of Lindens to them for food. They kept my L 90.

    I would not ever recommend anyone get involved with Sion, ever.

  35. Len W. Brown

    Apr 29th, 2014

    I visited this post more than three years ago and was pleasantly surprised to find I laughed harder this time at the commentary here than I did way back then.

    I have been in Second Live since 2006. I know all about the Sion Chickens, having purchased and enjoyed every product that has been offered, including the Sion Corn and its group of products. I personally flat-out loved the chickens and thoroughly enjoyed them for more than two years.

    I sold some now and then, but mostly I just enjoyed them as wonderful reason to keep me logging in over and over. This whole love-hate thing really amuses me. But then again, I’m a 41 year old with a college education who can tell the difference between the real world and the virtual one. While the virtual world is truly amazing and almost-limitless in its potential, it is best adopted by adults who know better than to sit and argue the positives and negatives of a virtual animal that as a worth in the tiny fractions of a dollar.

    That said, yes – I’ve made plenty of money in Second Life. In fact, for several months I made enough money to pay all my real-life bills and it was fantastic! But I didn’t do it by whining about getting a tiny refund for a little fake chicken egg now and again.

    Second Life has gone to Virtual Hell and not because of people creating virtual chickens like Sion Zaius. It’s gone to Virtual Hell by end users who are 20, pretend they are 30, but act like they are 10.

    Second Life’s “Glory Days” were when the majority of residents were honest-to-goodness adults, and who acted like they were as well. Until that happens again Second Life will never be anything more than a passing fad. And that is terribly, horribly sad considering how unbelievably amazing it can be.

    I am thankful I have been able to appreciate Second Life during the height of its existence. I was truly hard-core then – often being logged in for a day or two at a time, regularly. But now I log in maybe once a week and spend my time instead enjoying my own personal 64-region OpenSim island hosted on my own server – where I get to choose exactly who can and cannot be a part of that world. Thankfully, that world contains no whining idiots like Second Life is full of.

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