I think ALL kids have the ability to obtain a ton of information in the early years - just like it's easier to teach sign language or another language to a baby or young child than it is an adult or older child. And I believe this is what Baby Can Read does. It takes advantage of children's ability to process information at a young age. And for that reason alone, I don't see anything wrong with parents using it as a tool. This is like having two children, one who is nurtured and one who is ignored... the one who is nurtured will possess qualities of sympathy and empathy, love, caring, etc, and the one who is ignored will not. However this doesn't mean that the one who is nurtured won't have something in his/her genes that will allow him/her to know how to use these qualities (I'm not sure if that makes sense).
On the flip side, I don't believe that reading early in general makes a child gifted at all. And like the other posters have said, I feel it's only hothousing when you are making the child do something (or taking something away from the child if they don't) that he/she doesn't want to. Forcing it...
