According to Andres Wittermann, VP of Lewis PR's non-UK European operations, Microsoft is trying to gag editors who want to put Office Professional Plus 2007 Beta 2 on their cover disks.
I asked whether this just referred to the editorial describing the cover disk and Wittermann replied:
David, this really means ALL editorial copy it seems to me (and everyone else reading the agreement...)
Cripes. Here's the deal: signatories can stick the software on a cover disk as long as the disk doesn't also contain OpenOffice and other unspecified programs. Microsoft approval is needed for the whole of the cover disk. Editorial must also be approved by Microsoft prior to publication. Here are the words from Wittermann's post:
... they want to make sure you get the product right, they specifically state that any negative writing about MS and their products should be avoided by this measure.
A German story quoting the agreement is in the comments section of Witterman's blog.
If he's right and it applies to 'all coverage' of the product, it's no wonder ComputerBILD has rejected Microsoft's 'offer'.
It's even deeply questionable if it applies solely to the cover disk editorial. "Well Mr Editor, if you can be swayed by commercial interests to bend your copy here, why should we believe anything you write elsewhere?"
I bet there have been some interesting discussions in publishers' offices over this one.
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