Huh?

I had an attorney review this course of action. It was done to legally be able to cash checks without having to give my legal last name to folks online.. I’m totally upfront about it with everyone, and when I file taxes, it’s done under the EIN for that business and business name.

I’m not the only fiction author I know who has done this

What’s the problem you have with it?

Further, the consumer has the right to know your association with the site that you send them to. The consumer has a right to know that you have a vested interest in where you are sending them.

It is false a misleading advertising to use a fake name to sell someone something.

It may not be against the law to send someone to an Adsense site, but it’s still a gray area, one “I” find appalling.

The SEC does not allow licensed broker dealers, stock brokers, etc. to use something that someone else wrote and claim that they wrote it, putting their name on it.

Regarding my other points, there are Buzz Marketing Laws and yes, high profile cases and in those cases the FTC won them. The consumer has a right to know if you are promoting something and are being paid, bribed with free products or have a vested financial interest in “Buzzing” a product, procedure, service or any number of other things.

Personally, regardless of what the “letter of the law” states, it’s still unethical in my book. If you are selling anything on the Internet and promoting it through PR, publicity or online article writing, the consumer has a right to know. If you deny the consumer that right, you are not a very ethical person. Thus, I am glad not to be in anyway associated with anyone who would conduct themselves in that fashion. YUK, it takes all kinds.

For instance, if I say I am John Doe and I like this hair re-growth product and think it’s great! I haven’t commited a crime.

However, if I say I am john doe and this hair re-growth product re grew my hair (and it didn’t) that is fraud. It isn’t fraud to use a different name unless by using that name you convince someone to spend money that they wouldn’t have spent if they knew your real name.

I worked with one of the largest law firms in the Northeast of the US and this is one of the things that came up with one of my corporations. They researched it for me and cited cases. It cost me a lot of money. There has to be fraud and fraud would mean that the name itself caused a person to buy a product or claims were made for the product that were un-true.

I am a behavioral therapist and author but also work in other fields that are quite diverse. My personna in the other field is well known but I purposely do not mix them because behavioral work is based on conviction phenomena and therefore, I keep them separate.

I don’t make any unsubstantiated claims for any product I endorse and the companies offer complete money back guarantees.

You can call it lying if you like, it is still a free country. Others who see the world in many shades and understand human nature (P.T. Barnum comes to mind) do not see it that way. In a court of law it would have to be proven that the name itself caused the person to buy the product. Just using a pen name is not fraud.

We all get to have an opinion, that’s mine and the supreme courts. Of course, that could change if a case is brought before them and they make a different ruling.

As for Michy operating under the name of a corporation, good luck if you ever go to court with that one. People who operate under a corporate name as their own name have pierced the veil by doing so and therefore would have no protection.

I think Chris is right, we’ve spent enough time on this. We all have opinions, and apparently some of us are quite adament about this issue. I respectfully agree to disagree and wish all of you well.

It is deceptive to lie to someone about who you are, then send them to buy something. The really are “Buzz Marketing” laws and there have been some huge lawsuits by the FTC over this including several Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, if someone has information on their website that they claim to write, writes articles, sends email newsletters, and is in the securities industry it is illegal and the SEC is after folks that do. So, it’s not just me who thinks this.

No, matter how you justify deception or how much money you make through tricking people to your website or someone else’s does not make it any more legitimate. Although this is a gray area of law, it’s still deceptive. It’s not ridiculous at all.

The point of making a claim is irrelevant to Buzz Marketing rules, and even if no claim is made, if you discuss or buzz some industry, product or need using a fake name, you are being deceptive.

And why not use your real name? I sure have never read a legitimate answer to that. This concept of protecting your family is silly. Think of all the “Real” professionals and experts out there in every single industry in the real world do any of them pass out business cards with Fake Names on them? Well, do they? If you go to a chamber of commerce meeting in your city, how many people are using fake names? If they are, you need to ask WHY?

This Samuel Clemens argument is fine, but not when you are engaging and promoting products and services on the internet or in real life?

Do folks in trade journals using informational marketing by writing articles use their real names? Of course they do. Since when is the exact same activity on the Internet under different rules or different ethical standards. Fact is its not. But some people want it to be? Convenient indeed. I ask WHY? Why is it okay to lie and decieve on the Internet, but not in person?

Because you can. Now, “That is ridiculous” Wil.

I think Mark Twain, Mr. Clean, Betty Crocker, Richard Bachman (Stepehn King) and a host of others both fictional and real are just part of the advertising, entertainment world and adults understand that.

All this righteous indignation over people using a pen name to steer you toward a product is rediculous and it’s not fraud as long as the claims they make about the product are truthful and they do not say, that the pen name is their legal name. I’ve never read an article at EZ in which the author made that claim.

There are plenty of people who will take your money using their real name, so I don’t think that’s a logical conclusion from people using pen names.

There are lots of so-called experts who publish “vomit” under their real names, and in a lot more prominent and “trustworthy” places than Ezinearticles. Just scan through any non-fiction section in your local library or bookstore and you’ll find plenty of examples.

Being an expert is in the eye of the beholder anyway. If I know how to do something that you don’t and you want me to teach you, does that make me an expert? And does it revoke my expert status when you find out that there are people who know more about it than I do?

I agree with Mark – filter the articles on the basis of their content, not some vague list of “red flags” that indicate the author is somehow less reliable than the next guy just because he’s using a pen name.

Youtube owes it’s success to this phenomenon. The place is brimming over with restless and raw creativity in it’s treatment of some very tired topics. What a different place it would be if only experts could express themselves there.

Squidoo’s also very successful. They’ve got it right: everyone in their own way is an expert.

Even in the medical field, the voice of the amateur has it’s place. The idea of looking at one’s health in a holistic fashion didn’t get its start from an MD. It’s healthy that medical science be challenged in this way. It’s because of this that we’ve got the options that we have today. I remember asking a doctor (15 years ago) about the cardiovascular benefits of fish oil. That “expert” had nothing to say. The benefits of omega-3 fatty acids in fish are well known today.

I for one am not entirely trusting of experts. Their expert status shields them being challenged. This induces a lot of them to sit on their laurels and pontificate.

Do I need to be protected from the occasional snake oil salesman? Answer: No. I’m a big boy now. I’m all grown up. My parents did their job and I don’t need any surrogate parents thank you.

Our Editors are not aware when they initially review your articles whether the article was written with a pen name or a real name.

We discriminate daily against thin content, whether it was written by an author under his or her real name or whether it was written with a pen name.

We’re also very aware that many members who have alt-authors setup do so for other real human names and not pen names. Ex: I’m “Christopher Knight” but I could also have a alt-author name setup as “Chris Knight”… both being really me.

This thread has run its course. Thank you to everyone who participated and mostly for keeping the debate relatively on topic. :)

Sounds like a good proposition to me! :)