I'm not catching you on any word, I'm looking at the dictionary definition and silly claims that people who quite obviously "put (money) to use, by purchase or expenditure, in something offering potential profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value" are not investors. That's nonsensical.
I live in a country with high inflation. People buy a lot of USD to save their money. Are they investors?
IMO, as a matter of common English usage, if purchased to hold for any meaningful period of time, yes. It certainly offers potential profitable returns [from] appreciation of value.
Legally, ask your lawyer, don't ask me, or anyone on a forum.
Thanks and like said: this has been done. Not only by us, by Ethereum, Augur, Gems, Voxelus etc. It's quite basic. You just bit the bait of a troll and for some reason started thinking there were controversy here, there isn't. You seem like an otherwise intelligent guy, so I have no idea why you decide to waste your time trying to discredit a legit project that warns everyone upfront of all risks, that does something productive and useful and also legal. Power of the troll I guess..
I never discredited anything. If you think questioning double talk is discrediting, then you must feel you are on shaky ground somehow.
When you claim that people who are buying an asset with the prospect of appreciation (or who were allegedly promised profit-shares) are not investing in it, that is double talk.
Legally, I don't even care, nor do I find those discussions interesting since legal systems tend to get so complex that only specialists can even have a hope of understanding them (and even then they disagree). I'm mostly an anarchist, so as long as what you are doing doesn't mislead anyone, do what you want. But you can't stop questions about it on an unmoderated thread.