The American Heritage Dictionary indicates:
slan·der (sl²n“d…r) n. 1. Law. Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's reputation. 2. A false and malicious statement or report about someone.
li·bel (lº“b…l) Law. n. 1.a. A false publication in writing, printing, or typewriting or in signs or pictures that maliciously damages a person's reputation. b. The act or an instance of presenting such a statement to the public. 2. The written claims presented by a plaintiff in an action at admiralty law or to an ecclesiastical court.
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The fact remains the auction that caused this rile specifically said "THIS AUCTION IS FOR ONE VALVE STEM CAP" after it gave a description of a car. Regardless of one's intent it did IN FACT say that. Considering how the auction was worded it would lead a reasonable person to believe they were bidding on a car considering there were many car photos in the ad. As I recall, a similar incident occurred on eBay in which a young man was selling pictures of Plasma TVs. The auction was strikingly similar to our friend here selling a valve stem cap. It's called deceptive advertising and/or fraud, plain and simple. Read the full story
here.
The fact remains there was an auction which had the appearance of one selling a Buick GN complete with a description of the car and photos, but buried in the text were the words
"this auction is for one valve stem cap". Right, wrong or indifferent it was in fact there and it makes no difference if it was a "cut and paste error"...it was there. If anyone should apologize it should be the one who put the auction up in error.
End of story.