Re: Genie, Virii, and Beagle Bros. (was Re: Genie...is it worth it?)

[kindall@falcon.ic.net (Jay Edwards)]

Jim Wong (jd-wong@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote:
: lensman@crl.com (Randall Stukey) writes:
: >>If you don't get what you want in the $150 credit... sign up again with
: >>a friends address for another month, and get another $150 credit... :)
: >>
: >>Thats what I did. 

: >Sheesh, what some people will do to take advantage of the system.  Actually, I 
: >think what you've suggested here is a form of wire fraud and you can go to 
: >jail for it. Others might want to consider this before they try it.

: What's fraudulent about it?

Nothing illegal or fraudulent about it; there's nothing in the GEnie 
agreement you sign that forces you to stay on for a certain number of 
hours after your initial free time.  There might be something in the 
signup agreement limiting you to accepting the special offer once, and if 
you accept such a term then trying to take advantage of the same offer 
again would be fraudulent, since you agreed not to.  However, while 
accepting the offer ONCE (or even multiple times if there's no specific 
prohibition against it) with no intention to stay past the free period 
is not illegal or fraudulent, whether or not it's ethical is a different 
question entirely.

GEnie, of course, makes offers like that with the knowledge that some 
people will (for want of a better term) "abuse" the system by signing up 
multiple times for the offer, or by signing up with no intention to 
stay once they've had their free time.  To stop it would cost more money 
than they're losing to these individuals, and if the controls are too 
strict they might even drive customers away.

So if you can live with the knowledge that you're one the freeloaders 
who are tolerated merely because it would be too much trouble to get rid 
of them -- that's your business, I guess.  It would bother me.

The lack of a law against something doesn't necessarily mean it's right.

: --
: Jim Wong (jd-wong@uiuc.edu)

--
Jerry Kindall (kindall@ic.net) -- Manual Labor -- Writer for Hire!
Visit 1nformation/0verload at http://ic.net/~kindall