Linden Lab restricting use of the Linden Dollars in other virtual worlds

On Friday 13th March Hypergrid Business posted a blog post on Linden Lab restricting the use of Linden Dollars in other virtual worlds. The transfer of Linden Dollars to Avination grid is no longer available apparently including payment for Avination regions via the Avination ATMs across the grid. This is really bad news for the Avination community and this will effect them deeply. The talks between the Avination management team and Linden Lab have broken down.

I gather from this now that the current use of Linden Dollars will now be restricted to just Second Life. Other opensim grids/virtual worlds will have to come up with other ways around this issue if not already.

I received this email today about the cut in transfer of Linden Dollars to other virtual worlds.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
—
Avination required to stop transfer of Linden Dollars. Linden Lab cut transfer of Linden Dollars to other virtual worlds.

Due to recent interaction with Linden Labs, we regret having to inform you
that the transfer of Linden Dollars to Avination is no longer available,
including the payment of your Avination sims via the Avination ATMs.
Following discussions with Linden Labs they have advised that any use of
Linden Dollars in payment for currency of ANY other virtual world, or for
external services which are not used in SecondLife ™ is in violation of the
TOS.

Avination Management has attempted to discuss this matter with Linden Labs by
reiterating the importance of this option as well as trying to understand how
this is a violation of TOS, but unfortunately these talks have since broken
down.

Linden Labs’ Lawyers are adamant that these TOS clearly state that Linden
Dollars cannot be transferred. This stance will not just affect us as at Avination but could also see far reaching consequences for other companies considering legal use of L$, including services like Shoutcast Stream Rentals and other services rendered outside of SecondLife.

Unfortunately, for our loyal users and us this means an end to offering a fast
and convenient way of exchanging Linden Dollars to C$. According to Linden Labs, users of SecondLife must cash out through LindeX before using the real currency to pay for services not rendered within SL.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this will cause you and please accept we
have tried everything in our power to reach an amicable solution with Linden
Labs.

What do you think about Linden Lab restricting use of the Linden dollar in other virtual worlds ?