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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 9428754" data-attributes="member: 1">So there's a couple of different issues at play here.Being a reviewer is a different job than previewing/promoting a book.Supplying a copy of a book for review purposes is normal practice (also see movies, etc.) A publisher can't attach conditions to that review--can't say which pages can be shown, dictate any opinion, etc. However, the reviewer is bound by normal fair use practices relating to the amount they share. There's no strict rule on this, but you can't share a lot (though you can talk about what you want). An embargo date is the one thing that you do see from time to time, and while it's not enforceable, it's basically a strongly worded request. If you break an embargo, the only consequence is that you probably won't get any review copies in future.That's reviews. A reviewer is in no way a 'partner'. Movie critics aren't partners of the studios, even if they attend press screenings. Publishers supplying review copies is just part of their job, reviewers reviewing things is just part of their job, everybody's just doing their job, and it's generally well understood.If you're sending a book to somebody for purely promotional purposes, and especially if you're attaching NDAs (excepting embargoes), restricting what can be shown or talked about, etc., that's not a reviewer relationship. That is a promotional partnership. In this case, 'fair use' isn't the issue--it's whatever has been agreed between the two parties. This appears to be what we're discussing here, and it seems that (a) the relationship wasn't clear and (b) initial guidelines on what was appropriate were also absent or not clear. However, the existence of those guidelines does put this situation in the promotional partner category, not the review category.All perfectly valid, but we are talking about two different things.Incidentally, we will have a review up this week as one of our reviewers was able to secure a copy of the book at Gen Con.</blockquote>

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