Sneaky freewareI was in the process of preparing a post on this subject, particularly relating to Adobe, Sun, Apple and AVG, but Scott Dunn has beaten me to it so go and read his article—it is really good.
It is sad that major companies should resort to these tactics. Where I work we have an Ethical Standards Policy and I would hope that we would never do anything like this. The policy has the underlying principle “Would it look bad if reported in a newspaper” which works pretty well. That way you don’t have to worry too much about the grey areas as they sort themselves out.
Never mind that the product you are supplying is free—live with it and grow your reputation, not use it as a marketing platform for other products.
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