Costly gift from Microsoft becomes invite to blog
Microsoft's attempt to reach out to bloggers by giving them pricey laptops loaded with Vista generates controversy.
But the gifts generated controversy as well as goodwill, as many in that community accused Microsoft of bribery and their peers of unethical behavior.
But while those on Microsoft's mailing list initially greeted the machines with enthusiasm, many in the blogging community soon objected--and not only because they were left off the list--arguing that bloggers are bound by the same rules as traditional journalists, who should not accept expensive gifts from companies they cover.
Long Zheng, an Australian blogger who received one of the computers, had over 180 comments on his post about the computers, ranging from envy to disgust. "It's a bribe. Plain and simple," wrote one commenter.
Others disagreed. "Being provided an evaluation computer from Acer is not a ?bribe,'" Blake Handler, a Los Angeles blogger who received a laptop and who plans to keep it, wrote in a comment to Zheng's original post. "It simply allows me to accelerate my evaluations, documentation and demonstrations of Windows Vista."
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"Microsoft's official position is that once these bloggers are done experiencing the product, they can choose what they want to do with them," she said.