Blogging is something I enjoy doing. I do not pretend to use perfect spelling, grammar and puctuation. One thing I do maintain is ethical stanards in my writing.
I wonder if accepting free software license keys is ethical for a blogger giving their opinion about that free software. Will the fact that they did not pay for that license color their reveiw of the product? Should they disclose that their copy was free?
I have up until now bought everything I have written about at the publicly available price? Some software I have written about was distributed for free to everyone under licence conditions. It is my policy to disclose the condition under which I aquire anything I reveiw here. Whether I pay full price, sale price, free for everyone or a free review copy, you will know how a got the things I write about. That way, you can make your own judgement about my opinion, knowing how I got that item.
4 Dec 2008 at 9:14 AM |
Its a very fair question, but I believe it to be ethical based on the following:
* Technical journalists do this regularly, so bloggers doing this is no different.
* The person may very well accept the free license and give a very negative review of the product. (Of course, assuming the negative review to be valid, the software is likely of no use to the user anyway.)
You’re probably right that getting it for free ought to be reflected a review. “I like it and use it, but I wouldn’t have paid the $50 price for it.”