Responses to "Spam costs and questions" (long)

[William H. Geiger III]

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In <JumZ8D35w165w at bwalk.dm.com>, on 06/08/97 
   at 12:11 PM, dlv at bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM) said:

>If I advertise that "borshch cures cancer" and Kent buys some borshch
>from me, and dies from cancer anyway, then what's the basis for the
>gubmint's involvement?

Fraud, which is just a special case of theift (theift by deception).

What you are selling is not borshch but a cure for cancer (which happens
to be borshch). Since your cure does not work this is seen as fraud which
is theift and thus the government steps in.

No if some disintrested 3rd party claims that borshch cures cancer, and
you sell borshch, there is no fraud if the borshch does not cure cancer as
you are just selling borshch which is all the you claimed it was. The 3rd
party is not guilty of fraud as they have not entered into any contractual
agreement with the buyer of the borshch.

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William H. Geiger III  http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii
Geiger Consulting    Cooking With Warp 4.0

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