RE: false identity..NOT

Hey guys and (especially gals)... enough is enough! Quit socking every
body's bandwidth with this crap. Lets get back to serious, mature business
and stop acting like a bunch of pre-schoolers. (No, sorry, even they aren't
this bad. They only do what they do because they haven' had the opportunity
to learn better.)

Masters




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hwg-business(at)hwg.org [mailto:owner-hwg-business(at)hwg.org]On
Behalf Of Laura Mollett
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2000 14:32
To: hwg-business(at)hwg.org
Subject: Re: false identity..NOT


> I still don't see why everyone is making such a big deal about this, and I
> still don't think this would constitute fraud.  He said that he was going
> to be doing a greeting oriented site, and wanted to use the photos to make
> the visitors more comfortable.
 I don't know what is meant by a "greeting oriented site" but he said:

>> My decision to do this was simply because I am just a single guy! And I
do
>> not think showing a picture of me on the site would do much to help the
>> marketing aspects.

and "marketing aspects" to me means selling something. Selling something on
the basis of false information is imo false advertising and/or fraud (once
again, standard IANAL disclaimer). I have a limited knowledge of what you
can and can't do (I work in advertising) and claiming to be something you
aren't and to have experience you don't in order to convince others to buy
or give something to you is, I believe, illegal. Dear Abby columns offer
free advice and are full of disclaimers about possible harm to people taking
the advice anyway... television/print advertising requires all kinds of
particular disclosures and disclaimers (depending on the ads, local, and
national restrictions). Also while it's perfectly legal to use aliases and
pseudonyms for certain purposes, you can't claim to be just anyone - such as
taking advantage of your resemblance to a famous or public person, and
taking money from someone else on that basis, or claiming to be a lawyer or
doctor.

> There are
> also lots of people with the words "Inc." or "Enterprises", etc., that are
> really only one person working out of their garage.
I don't know about "enterprises" but it is also illegal to use the term
"inc" if you aren't incorporated. A person working out of their garage might
*be* incorporated, but you can't just add it willy nilly any more than you
can add the registered trademark or patent pending notices if you haven't
registered the trademark or have a patent pending. Nor is it legal to lie
about your experience on a resume - just because people do things is not a
good indication that they are legal things to do. (and ignorance of the law,
or claiming someone else is doing it will not get you out of trouble if
you're being sued.)

> Having said all that, I wouldn't do it myself, I wouldn't recommend others
> to do it, and I don't see this as a good thing.  I also think that some of
> the people need to take a breath or two before posting, and try to calm
> down a little.  I think that in some cases, it might make perfect sense
(as
> shown by some of the examples), and people need to start doing things
other
> than jumping to conclusions.
Other peoples moral/ethical values are their own problem imo. Their choices
to break the law are also their own choices. This person asked on the list
for opinions. I'm not upset. As someone else pointed out, I could care less
whether he does or doesn't do this. But if you ask for my opinion on
something I consider illegal and unethical, I'll tell you that. If you say
"but other people do it", I'll point out, 1) it's not the same situation, 2)
there are all kinds of laws governing that, and 3) because someone else
chooses to do something that's "wrong" or illegal doesn't mean it's a good
idea for you to do it. If someone is going to consider doing something that
rides this close to fraud, their best bet would probably be to hire an
attorney and find out what they can really do to protect themselves,
*especially* if they intend to "market" something. You (general you all the
way here) can take my advice or ignore it as you please.

Laura

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