3pointD.com

As the Second Life Herald reports this morning, Linden Lab, makers of the virtual world of Second Life, has apparently banned the main account of one of its largest customers, land baron Anshe Chung, after she tried to withdraw more than US$50,000 from one of her Linden accounts and dangled the idea of starting up her own virtual currency to compete with the Linden dollar. Anshe pays LL something like US$30,000 in fees every month on the virtual real estate she owns there, but was apparently suspended from the world for being one day late on a US$5,000 bill. The move is apparently not an April Fool’s joke, as Anshe’s name has disappeared from the world’s Find interface. As the Herald sees it, the move was either a mistake (which speaks ill of LL’s management controls), or an active move against Anshe (which speaks ill of business conditions on SL’s Grid). Of course, we haven’t heard LL’s side of things yet. Anshe earns more than US$100,000 in Second Life, and is regularly touted by Linden Lab as an example of what’s possible in their world. Are they now trying to shut her down? Or have they just made a dire mistake? Stay tuned.