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- Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!news!humu!pegasus!tleylan
- From: tleylan@pegasus.com (Tom Leylan)
- Subject: Re: Chain letters?
- Message-ID: <1992Dec23.030644.26358@pegasus.com>
- Organization: Pegasus, Honolulu
- References: <1992Dec21.173054.18939@eff.org>
- Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 03:06:44 GMT
- Lines: 36
-
- greeny@eff.org (J S Greenfield) writes:
-
- >I've seen at least two workable definitions of a "chain letter" posted.
- >(One equivalent to the US Postal regulation, and one including all letters
- >distributed solely for the sake of distribution, itself.)
-
- >It is *your* side, which insists that those definitions are insufficient,
- >but which has failed to produce a definition that is not overly-broad
- >(including things like resumes and jokes) that is responsible for the
- >extended length of this discussion.
-
- J.S., It's probably best if I drop out of the thread because I don't
- honestly know what you want. I thought this was about chain letters
- and someone's insistence that without a legal definition we wouldn't
- recognize one if it poked us in the eye.
-
- You clarified it right up by introducing "resumes" and "jokes" and
- suggesting (I think) that any definition of a chain letter that let
- jokes and resumes slip through isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
-
- In a nutshell, I believe that my position is that the only way you
- can arrive at "absolute definitions" is to pare it down to a point
- where you have described _a_ chain letter but not all chain-like
- letters.
-
- If somebody's definition includes "a solicitation to send money" then
- clearly a letter which suggests you should send an article of clothing
- and explains how a 4th century monk didn't and died is NOT a chain
- letter. Great then we can invent new terms for all the chain-like
- variants, a great use of time and resources....
-
- You're probably correct in whatever point you're trying to make I just
- don't see the point behind it all.
-
- tom
-
-