Hi Folks -

The free book offer is over thanks to the folks at the FTC. They just put in a rule that if if anyone endorses / reviews a product in any public forum (on tv, in a blog, at amazon etc.) and received "consideration" in any form, it has to be revealed. A sample of the product is considered to be consideration. So, if I sent a copy of a book to a music blog for review, they have to reveal that I sent them a book. Or if you posted a review at amazon, you would have to reveal that I had sent you a book. Do they really expect magazines and newspapers to put in a disclaimer at the end of every review "Hey, we got a free copy so take all this with a grain of salt"? Do they really think that viewers watching some movie star shill for a product on Oprah can't figure out that there's probably something going on? Or who is sincere? You can read more about this in today's WSJ. It's just another example of government overreaching. Mighty considerate of them to announce that they expect prosecution to be rare...