I recently received a short missive from my errant brother, Cardinal, which I shall reproduce in its entirety here.
How can it be, this once-brave land bereft, Of freedom, justice, honour? What is left? The tyrant's word, From vision blurred! Our boldest citizens have suffered theft! Their words, their speech, their freedom, strike the rocks. Their rights, their simple right to place a box, Of spinning sort - Not to "extort"! Now cruelly taken, and now Linden mocks! Alas! That new and inexperienced eyes, May never henceforth see beneath the skies, Of mainland turf, Or coastal surf, A field of beauteous ad-prims now arise! O fickle Linden! O, thou Socialist! What shall be next denied right to exist? O slipp'ry slope! One cannot hope, That other basic rights shall still persist! Freedom Of Speech, a principle most sound, Has now been driven cruelly to the ground! One word denied, And Justice cried! O Linden, thou dost liberty confound! The baying mob has won this day, perhaps, But let us who love Freedom not collapse! There will be ways, In coming days, To force our lawful business through the gaps!Your loving Brother, Cardinal
To tell the truth, I was too busy opening champagne to actually write anything myself.
(His last stanza, of course, is quite accurate; this is no panacea and doubtless there will be new methods of extortion and harassment arising, as well as issues as to the enforcement of this one, simply due to sheer volume. But please do allow me at least a short period of satisfaction.)
I daresay the greatest complaint one might level against the Gentlemen and Ladies of the Laboratories is that a measure such as this was not enforced long ago. And there can be no doubt that those who previously practiced Extortion in this manner will find innumerable Loop-holes in the policy to be exploited. Still and all, half a loaf is better than none.
As for myself, I shall content myself in knowing that no such distasteful Ad-Prims will ever grace the fair skies of Lexxotica, lest the purveyors thereof face The Wrath of Lexx...about which, the less said, the better.
I have, by happenstance, providence, or serendipity, just now come across your blog. And while I cannot ever hope to agree with your brother, I do, along with many residents so aggrieived, decry the ad hoc demagogy by which Linden whim becomes law.
Having so said, I have a very close friend who has suffered, at close hand, the argillicolous decline of her property as a trove of massive robots have sprung up in advertisement. These are the worst kinds of neighbors.
Some regulation is clearly in order. But when and where can a Resident's voice be heard first?