Council of Elrond

Assume there is an untapped character bearing Cram. Can he discard Cram for no effect? The rumour spreads that Cram can be discarded just for reducing the corruption point total of the character bearing it. But I wonder if that's legal.

That is not legal, methinks. Somewhere in the rules is written that everything you want to do has to have an effect in the game (I think the example given is playing a Twilight without target). If the character is untapped, I think you cannot discard Cram, because it would have no effect.
The thing discussed about Cram is if you can discard it in the Council to reduce yout total CP in a character, because you can only play cards and effects that affect the corruption points or corruption checks. Probably the answer is no, because the effect of cram is untapping the character, and reducing the CP is just a "side effect" of discarding the Cram.

Short answer: In my opinion, you can't.

Cram wrote:Discard to untap bearer.

Discarding Cram is the active condition of untapping the bearer. The reduction of CP is a side effect of discarding cram. If there is no way to untap the bearer, you may not discard Cram in this circumstance, because you can only discard it as an active condition, rather than an action in and of itself.

Bandobras Took wrote:Discarding Cram is the active condition of untapping the bearer. The reduction of CP is a side effect of discarding cram. If there is no way to untap the bearer, you may not discard Cram in this circumstance, because you can only discard it as an active condition, rather than an action in and of itself.

Aaahhh, sweet legal wording stuff. Love it. Thanks