Personally, I think it's a great idea.... but.... at this point I'm wary of buying someone a copy of software that appears to be no longer in development (and that will have a license from after Dec. 4th.... so will likely need to be upgraded to a version 9 licence later on). To me, it seems similar to going to the store and buying a friend a copy of Office 2000 instead of Office XP... the software still works fine... but a newer, better version exists.
I can understand that MC/MJ 9 is not ready for full release yet (and that unfortunately won't be happening before the season of giving has passed us by), but it doesn't make sense to me, possibly because I don't have a lot of money myself, to give somebody something that they will have to (or if they like MJ, want to) dump more money into shortly after receiving it.
Maybe instead, the offer could be for a copy of MJ 8 with an MC/MJ 9 license. This would tempt me... as I would know that the person would be able to get a full, working copy of version 9 once released... without having to dig into their pockets for a licence upgrade.
Other than that, I think the idea is a good one... I mean, who better to promote MJ than its happy users?
That's my 2 cents. Thanks for asking!
D.