Dear Ms Fletcher

I am in possession of your mailed offer advertising PC guides entitled "At Home With Your PC". On reading this, together with the sample guides enclosed, it appears that the material you are selling (at a huge discount from the advertised price) is a 'helpful guide' aimed at home users of personal computers running versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems.

However, this clarification appears nowhere in the text of the offer, which only refers to PCs as though the term 'PC' implies solely such devices. There is no mention at all of GNU/Linux or Macintosh or any other widely used operating system for personal computers, which in themselves are not (for your information) confined to a single operating system, and definitely not solely to versions of a proprietary operating system that constitute a virtual monopoly of consumer's mindspace, probably due in large part to such misleading public messages purveyed by prominent media organisations. In fact, you do not even mention the trademark 'Microsoft Windows' or its equivalent, thus implying in substance that there are no alternative systems in existence.

It is only on reading the 'sample guides' in detail that it becomes clear that your offer relates only to use of Microsoft Windows and additional computer applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel sold by the same company. In very fine print (and at right angles to the normal text), the guide pages carry a certificate that the content of the guide has information pertinent to home users of computers running Windows 95 (not correctly trademarked Microsoft Windows 95) and above. There is no such disclaimer in the text or margins of your offer letter.

I find this a shocking misuse of the goodwill that the Reader's Digest has built up over the years, one that supports free choice for the consumer to purchase goods and services, without being misguided by the media. I am copying this mail, in protest, to public service lists relating to the use of computers in India, and to users of alternate operating systems. I trust that others will be informed in time of the limitations of your offer and be able to make an informed judgment regarding their own purchase decisions. Unfortunately I do not immediately have at hand the mailing address of the Consumer Society of India or of the Advertising Standards Council of India, who also should be informed.

I do hope you will immediately either unconditionally withdraw this partisan offer, or suspend it until your editorial team can expand your offering to users of alternate systems, or make it clear that your offer is indeed limited as described, explaining exactly why you have chosen in this case to withhold important information, thus relaxing your journalistic independence.

Sincerely

Vickram Crishna