All members of SDF are required to:

• Respect the intellectual property of artisans
• Collaborate and share with other artisans
• Generate income through creative contribution
• Avoid income generation through exploitation
• Eliminate class distinctions by sharing infrastructure
• Enjoy the delicious crispiness of tacos

1. What is the SDF's stance on land barons in SL?

Summary: The SDF wants to implement a progressive tax on land transactions to remove the incentive for land speculation. This tax will only effect those who purchase and sell more than 4096 m² of land in a month. It will only effect the top 1% of the land-trading population.

The SDF believes that land profiteers are engaging in what is known as "parasitic wealth extraction." This parasitic wealth extraction is the creation of profits without having provided goods or services to the community. In the case of land profiteers, they purchase land, divide it and resell it for a profit without improving the land in any way. This is different from a merchant who makes a product, such as clothes and sells it to a customer. In that case they are providing a service to the community.

Land speculation is made profitable in Second Life by a regressive tax placed on land holdings. (A regressive tax is a tax that makes those who are poor pay more money.) This regressive tax is, in fact, the Second Life tier system for owning land. The tier system provides discounts to those who own progressively more land, charging the most per square meter for those who own the smallest lots and charging the least per square meter for those who own the largest lots. In real life (RL) these lower prices for increasing one's land holdings are simply a bulk discount which act as an incentive to upgrade. However in Second Life (SL) it has the effect of being a regressive land tax which punishes small land owners and enables land profiteering. Those with higher tier levels actually improve their in-world land-transaction profitability.

In addition to the regressive land-tier system, profiteers have also found a way to take advantage of group incentives. To promote collaboration in SL, groups are able to hold 10% more land collectively than they are able to as individuals. It has been discovered that land profiteers often create multiple alternate accounts in order to create front groups for the purpose of taking advantage of the increase in land holdings. A 10% increase in land holdings without charge translates to a 9% decrease in costs, increasing the profitability of buying and selling land. Further, groups are often given a week or more time to find enough members to cover newly purchased land. By passing land holdings back and forth between two groups it is possible to delay tier payments on large purchases indefinitely, further increasing profitability. This behavior is the definition of exploitation. It is the transformation of an incentive created for artisans to collaborate to a loop hole used by land barons to exploit. Why does Linden Labs allow this loop hole to continue to be exploited by the top 1% of land owners at the detriment of the other 99%? Ask them.

The SDF wants to implement a progressive tax on land transactions to remove the incentive for land speculation. This tax will only effect those who purchase and sell more than 4096 m² of land in a month. It will only effect the top 1% of the land-trading population.

2. What groups in SL do you support?

We support political affiliation groups such as LLL and artisan cooperatives such as the RATE group.

We feel the SDF builds upon their goals by simultaneously holding their principles while actively trying to affect change through education, the political process, and the creation of artisan cooperatives.