From: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@amaranth.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 07:47:31 +0800
To: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Subject: Re: Fraud and free speech
In-Reply-To: <v03102802afc0e602d172@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <199706082331.SAA10511@mailhub.amaranth.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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In <v03102802afc0e602d172@[207.167.93.63]>, on 06/08/97 
   at 03:48 PM, Tim May <tcmay@got.net> said:


>At 5:51 AM -0700 6/8/97, William H. Geiger III wrote:
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>>
>>In <Pine.GSO.3.95.970608053415.20770A-100000@well.com>, on 06/08/97
>>   at 07:36 AM, Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> said:
>>
>>>I don't think commercial speech should be treated as second-class speech.
>>>But my position is hardly surprising.
>>
>>Well I think that there are some that would confuse the issue between 1st
>>Amendment free speech and the issues surrounding fraud. Especially those
>>in government who write the laws that regulate commercial speech.

>The mistake has been to extend "fraud" laws to non-contract situations,
>e.g., ordinary speech (as distinguished from contracts).

>If the Catholics say drinking the blood of JC and eating a piece of his
>flesh (aka, "Jesus sashimi") will get you into Heaven, is this fraud or
>not?

>In the increasingly popular notion of fraud, sure it is. It is a
>statement or assurance which is almost certainly false. But then, aren't
>all religions frauds?

>Contracts, with clearly stated conditions and with judgeable or
>falsifiable/testable conditionals, are a matter for the courts (private
>courts, in fact), but vague promises, advertisements, propaganda, etc.
>are not.

>Clear now?

Well I would have to dissagre. Advertisements should be covered under
contract law as verbal contracts. If I advertise that "X" does "Y" but it
really does "Z" then this is clearly fraudulent behavior.

The difficulty is in proving that "X" does "Z" and not "Y" but that is an
exercise left to the civil courts.

- -- 
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William H. Geiger III  http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii
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