Is accepting a review laptop bribery?

Let me answer this right from the get go. No, it is not bribery. In the very first line in the afore linked to Wikipedia entry it states that it is a “crime implying a sum or gift given alters the behavior of the person in ways not consistent with the duties of that person”.

I am writing about this because of an article written by Joel Spolsky, a well known software developer and writer. He states that it is unethical for a blogger to accept a “review” laptop from Microsoft, who recently have been sending out laptops with the new vista OS installed. I think that he is speaking from a totally inexperienced perspective and without that knowledge is ignorant of something that has been standard ethical practice for many years in the “review” industry. The argument that he should of stated is “are the bloggers that are accepting these ‘review’ laptops altering their behavior in ways not consistent with the duties of that blogger”. This is where we get foggy. If the blogger has nothing to do with software or say the Information Technology industry. Then yes it would be unethical to accept this gift.

BUT Joel goes on to argue that he deems it unethical for him to accept this “gift”, implying that any other blogger that accepts the gift is also unethical. Well as some one that has a better reputation and experience then me in blogging about software development I think he is a prime candidate for reviewing Microsoft’s new windows operating system. He is free to decline the “gift” and to cast the gift “giving” by Microsoft in a negative light. But to call accepting the gift by other bloggers a crime is truly stretching the word “bribery” to it’s foggy limit. While I agree that Microsoft is deserving of the “bribery” accusation I do not think that bloggers should be cast in the same light.