参考：The United Nations Optional Protocol on the Rights of the Child requires states tooutlaw the "producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling or possessing for the above purposes" of child pornography.

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2010-05-22

■連邦取引委員会の消費者へのMLMについて注意を喚起する文書

Multilevel Marketing Plans
　
Produced in cooperation with the North American Securities AdministratorsAssociation
　
November 1996
　
Multilevel marketing plans, also knownas "network" or "matrix" marketing, are a way of selling goods or services through distributors. These plans typicallypromise that if you sign upas a distributor, you will receive commissions -- for both your sales of the plan's goods or services and those of other people you recruit to join the distributors. Multilevel marketing plans usuallypromise to pay commissions throughtwo ormore levels of recruits, knownas the distributor's "downline."
　
If a plan offers to pay commissions for recruiting new distributors, watchout! Moststatesoutlaw this practice, which is knownas "pyramiding."State laws againstpyramiding say that a multilevel marketing plan shouldonly pay commissions for retail sales of goods or services, not for recruiting new distributors.
　
Why ispyramiding prohibited? Because plans that pay commissions for recruiting new distributors inevitably collapse when no new distributors can be recruited. And when a plan collapses, most people -- except perhaps thoseat the very top of thepyramid -- lose their money.
　
The Federal Trade Commission cannot tell you whether a particular multilevel marketing plan is legal. Nor can it give you advice about whether to join such a plan. You mustmake that decision yourself. However, the FTC suggests that you usecommon sense, and consider theseseven tips when youmake your decision:
　
Avoid any plan that includes commissions for recruiting additional distributors. Itmay be an illegalpyramid.
　
Beware of plans that ask new distributors to purchase expensive inventory. These plans can collapse quickly -- and alsomay be thinly-disguisedpyramids.
　
Be cautious of plans that claim you willmake money through continued growth of your "downline" -- the commissionson sales made by new distributors you recruit -- rather than through sales of products youmake yourself.
　
Beware of plans that claim to sellmiracle products orpromise enormous earnings. Just because a promoter of a planmakes a claim doesn't mean it's true!Ask the promoter of the plan to substantiate claims with hard evidence.
　
Beware of shills -- "decoy" references paid by a plan's promoter to describe their fictional success in earning money through the plan.
　
Don't pay or sign any contracts in an "opportunity meeting" or any other high-pressure situation. Insiston taking yourtime to think over a decision to join. Talk it over with your spouse, a knowledgeablefriend, an accountant or lawyer.
　
Do yourhomework! Check with your local Better Business Bureau andstate Attorney General about any plan you're considering -- especially when the claims about the product or your potential earnings seem too good to be true.
　
ForMore Information
The FTC also publishes: Wealth-Building Scams; Business Opportunities: Avoiding VendingMachine and DisplayRack Scams; Work-at-Home Schemes; Franchise and Business Opportunities; and A Consumer Guide to Buying a Franchise. For a free copy of these brochures or a copy of Best Sellers, a complete list of the FTC's consumer publications, contact:
ConsumerResponse Center
Federal Trade Commission
Washington,D.C. 20580
(202)326-2222
TDD: (202)326-2502
　
　
Where to Complain
Youmay send questions or complaints to:
Correspondence Branch
Federal Trade Commission
Washington,D.C. 20580
Although the FTC cannot resolve individual disputes, the information you providemay indicate a pattern of possible law violations requiring action by the Commission.
　
You alsomay want to contact theNational Fraud Information Center (NFIC), a project of theNational Consumer League,at 1-800-876-7060, 9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. EST,Monday -Friday. The NFIC is a private nonprofitorganization that operates a consumer hotline to provide service andassistance in filing complaints. NFIC helps the FTC and thestate Attorneys General by entering complaints into a computerized database to help track and identify fraud operators.

和訳は以下のページ。

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kato/logos/ftc-mlm.htm

Permalink |記事への反応(0) | 08:28

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2009-11-25

■Being a gypsy

I finally understood something. A cliche, but something that is important to me.

I've seennine counselors and four psychiatristssince I was eighteen. I've been sexually and verbally abused by my family, had eating problems, both anorexia and bulimia, and have also been abused bytwo ofthe therapists. I'm also a returnee,as the Japanese label me, so I've been bulliedat school, and never reallyfelt like Ifit in anywhere, including my family.Yes, I had awhole lot of problems.

Ialways though about killing myself, and it was a ritual to think about whether to die and how tolive at thetop of a buildingon my birthday night. Theair was always cold and clear, andstars just seem so near. Up there, rationality just seemed toblur, and wrong or right became so dull with all the pain.As a person who believes Christ, or perhaps in any other religion, suicide is asin, but it literallyfelt like living inhell.

Nevertheless, now I finally understand. It was the sense of isolation and hunger ofbeing accepted, that had been eating me after all. It's such a cliche, but I guess it's true. It irritates me because notone ofthe therapists were capable of handling a bilingual, abused and wounded person, and I myself neverrealized how much trouble I had when the other person was only capable of handling Japanese, although Iam as goodas a native after living here twenty years. Some ofthe therapists were trained and licensed in U.S. and spokeEnglish, but I also didn't notice thehuge difference of them and myself -- I can't give an explicit example, but I guessbeing a returnee and anatural interpreter gives people a different sense. Now, I clearly see the difference is not ignorable. And, it's almost unbelievable that it took me so long to come to this point.

I hate myself. I hate myself for not realizing all these years, for all the money I spenton therapy, forbeing abused, forbeing abusedagain by a therapist, for notbeing able to communicate my feelings and for even ignoring my own senses just to beaccepted by my therapists themselves.

Perhapsbeing bilingual to me is muchmore troublesome than others say. Hopefully I can now bemore comfortable byaccepting that I'm like a gypsy. I'vealways been anoutlaw, anyway. And I hope I can be able to connect with people and have real relationships. All the things I wanted from a therapist are the same things I wanted from normal otherhuman beings.I know there are things that need to be covered by professionals, but now that Irealize even professionals can't help, and I can't be reallyaccepted by any professional,as long the relationship is kept "professional."