This is a delicate point, ethically speaking. Magazines do get often
freebies to review and (favorably) report about them. The competitor
probably spent its promotional budget sending freebies to magazines
serving the field.
The problem is that reviewers might blackmail companies into giving them
freebies, under the threat of bad reviews and/or favoring competitors.
Also, the reviewer won't get product of typical quality (as sold in
shops) but product which may have been carefully tested in order to avoid
shame to the company.
The ethical thing to do is to buy the product using the regular channels
and review it. On the other hand, the budget available to FAQ writers
for such purposes is zero, null and void. Therefore, the FAQ writer
might try to arrange to borrow the item in question and return it after
the review.
--- Omer
(DEAF-L/bit.listserv.deaf-l FAQ maintainer)
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