A Marketing Research Firm, Forrester Research, Released a Report Concluding

A marketing research firm, Forrester Research, released a report concluding that developing and deploying Web-based portal applications is substantially less expensive using Microsoft technology than it is using competitive software such as a Linux/J2ee combination. However, sometime after this information was released to the public, it was learned that Microsoft had sponsored (i.e. "paid for") the research conducted by Forrester. This example illustrates:

A) firms can gain a great deal of favorable publicity if the research company conducting their research makes the research results public
B) research findings should not be made public unless they have been replicated at least five to six times in different environments thus ensuring the information is accurate
C) there is an ethical issue in the marketing research industry in terms of "research integrity." In this case, the issue is whether the research was conducted by Forrester in a way that ensured favorable results for the sponsoring client, Microsoft
D) there is no ethical issue in this situation at all. Any research company has a First Amendment right to announce anything it wishes at any time it wishes.
E) this is a clear case of frugging and is illegal