[Nick Danger]

I can't twist it into an evil MS plot.

It's not exactly an "evil plot" but it isn't totally innocent either. The very employees at Microsoft who decided to do this probably cannot themselves accept a gift this size from a vendor... or a would-be vendor.

Almost every big company has policies like this. If you're in advertising or promotion you're supposed to know that you just don't do this. It puts the recipients in an embarrassing spot.

Microsoft's advertising people know this. They thought about it, and then they did it anyway. I think that tells us something about Microsoft that we would just as soon not know.

[Richard Kimball]

If you'll check my post #29, you'll find that I rethought my earlier position, and will admit I was wrong. If MS sent out random free copies of Office, without regard as to whether or not the individual was an employee, it would be a different situation. It would also be perfectly legal for MS to provide the agency with evaluation copies. After reading several rebuttals (including yours), it became pretty obvious to me that this was a gift specifically targeted to employees with the expectation of garnering favor. This is, of course, what the laws are designed to prevent. As an employee of a college (I train fire fighters), I have to admit that it was extremely difficult for me to turn down an "evaluation" pair of fire fighting boots that retail for around $320, but, ce la vie.

Having never worked for the Feds, I'm not sure what their laws are, but at my level, it's not illegal for them to offer the gift, just for me to take it. On the other hand, I frequently receive evaluation copies of textbooks, and see no conflict of interest, since I have a legitimate role in evaluating these books for classroom use.