First of all, sorry about the late comment. I just discovered this article today... Well, i can confirm what Toady Nakamura wrote about the "abandoned names". LL didn't understand there were some other problems during the sign up process. Yes, i remember the website did sometimes "crash", and another problem was: They used to send out an email with a verification link that you had to click. But i never got this email, for some reason. I tried several times, with different e-mail accounts, and now i have 4 accounts floating in "Limbo" since 2011 and i can't access them. But that doesn't matter now anymore. I just wanted to mention that, because it brought back some memories when i read that.

I don't think they can really prevent people from using (or making) "Fan stuff" in virtual worlds. No matter if its Sansar, SL or something else... OK, first of all, i am not from the USA, and i don't know much about their laws. But Star Trek is so popular and has so many fans worldwide, there will always be people wanting to make or use those things.