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Amazon Removes Yaoi Manga Titles From Kindle Store

Posted by timothy on from the think-of-the-kindling dept.

Repossessed writes "Amazon is now cracking down on Yaoi manga, with several titles that have been available on the Kindle since 2009 being delisted and others now being rejected, according to Digital Manga Publisher. DMP has also stated that Amazon has not given any rationale for the rejections and removals, and Amazon has not been answering emails or phone calls from journalists asking about the subject."

12 of 450 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Couldn't you define it in the summary? by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 5, Funny

    And remove the joy of discovery when you google the term? Why for...

    --
    - These characters were randomly selected.
  2. Don't let One Distributor Control eBooks! by rolfwind · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This was always the paradox of ebooks. By every measure, ebooks should have the first thing that easily came to the computer. Files sizes were small and text was one of the first things reasonably conquered by computers. In the early days, sound cards were necessary to play music, video files were just goddamned intensive.... and yet as a medium, books came last after everything else.

    Now, we're stuck with Amazon/Apple being the central distributors, they're start going to decide more and more on content for whatever reason. At least music players, you can load it up as an mp3 file and there are several music stores online to choose from. Even Apple managed to talk RIAA out of DRM. But publishers are going to be signing their own death warrant, building up their masters for the immediate (and false) security of DRM.

    I love things in a digital format. But I really, really hate how the distribution model is playing out. This is the eBay model. One central place, it's convenient in some ways, but you play by their rules or you don't play at all, and if they decide to fuck you, they really fuck you.

    We need to get away from the eBay model from these greedy ass companies, or it's going to be a damned bleak and bland future. We need to move over to the google shopping model, decentralized and seperate stores/vendor offering their wares connected by an neutraol aggregator (which lets people review service) and a whitelist for the cautious type.

    I'm getting really sick of the direction these gadgets are heading.

    1. Re:Don't let One Distributor Control eBooks! by gmhowell · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What we see now is a less tech-savvy public that would rather pull all their media from central distributors anyway, because they are ignorant of the alternatives. This is why DRM is being thrust upon us without a mass uproar.

      Why do nerds always seem to not understand that people might not be ignorant: they might be apathetic. The theoretical losses due to DRM are outweighed by the perceived benefits. Here's a hint: indifference curve. Yours is not mine.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    2. Re:Don't let One Distributor Control eBooks! by RonTheHurler · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is clearly a form of censorship, but it's not an illegal one. Amazon has a right to choose what they carry in their stores, just as any other store does.

      There is a worse form of censorship happening in our schools that very few people seem to be aware of. I discovered this when my daughters collaborated to write a book. They are in first and third grade, and when the box of newly printed books arrived, they proudly tried to donate several copies to the school library. The school rejected them.

      It was not because of content. The librarian and some teachers all read the book and thought it was fine, and a great example of accomplishment for the other kids. It was not because of price -- we were donating the books. The problem is, the school district only allows books from a specific set of publishers, and since this book was self-published, it could not be allowed in the school. I inquired about the publishers, and there were only three on the list (Scholastic being one, and I'm sorry don't recall the other two.)

      Essentially, the schools don't have to censor anymore, they have outsourced that function to a few trusted publishers. In our case, this is a district-wide policy, other districts might be different.

      I have a busy life and didn't have the time to become an activist for open libraries in the schools (but I truly wish I could). Instead, I managed to get the kids' book on Amazon and B&N (although not in an e-book format -- It's a picture book that doesn't migrate well to those devices.)

      Regarding Kindles, distributors and censorship - the device is not totally dependent on the e-store. I have versions of my daughters' book on my own kindle and in Ibooks too. The formats for publishing on those devices is pretty well known (epub. mobi, pdf, etc.) Distribution is the problem, but only for the technically challenged who can't be bothered to manually transfer the title onto their device - even when it's as simple as sending an email (a service Amazon provides for their Kindles -- it's a slightly bigger challenge for iBooks, but only slightly. I don't have a Nook...)

      But I can't hack into my kids' library so easily -- other than to provide books at home for them too. Is there a better solution to this problem? Ultimately, I don't think so. Does anyone have a different opinion?

  3. Not that I'm interested in the following... okay? by Pseudonym+Authority · · Score: 5, Informative

    Bullshit, yaoi is just gay hentai, (where as yuri is lesbian hentai). Shotacon is, usually gay, hentai with little boys, (and lolicon is hentai with little girls, if you were just dying to know).

  4. dongs galore by eltardo · · Score: 5, Funny

    As long as I can still buy 12" double sided dildos on Amazon, I'm good.

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    plop
  5. Amazon Deleting 1984 Was a Warning... by Ron+Bennett · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After Amazon remotely deleted 1984 (ironic to say the least), this is no surprise. It would be akin to a book seller breaking into one's home to take back a book one had already bought; "licensed" is the loophole Amazon and other on-line book sellers uses to get around the 1st sale doctrine to restrict, or even often forbid, resale, sharing, etc.

    More to the point, the 1984 incident illustrated well that Kindles, much like many mobile devices, are designed with remote deletion in mind - there was an article on here the other day about Google remotely deleting apps.

    While Amazon supposedly agreed they will refrain from utilizing remote deletion in the future, the feature still exists. On a related note, even if the device out of the box doesn't support remote deletion, any device that accepts software updates with little (ie. Bluray players; inserting a disc) to no user intervention (mobile phones) can easily be programmed to remotely restrict / delete / self-destruct.

    Among the best defenses against remote deletion / restrictions are widely used, non-DRM formats that can be easily copied and widely distributed, as well as, easily compared / verified to ensure the contents haven't changed...

    To digress a tad, it's only a matter of time, assuming it's not already happened, before some company, such as Amazon, doesn't remotely delete a book, but rather silently modifies some of the content *after* purchase without telling the customer.

    Ron

    1. Re:Amazon Deleting 1984 Was a Warning... by DaScribbler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You left out the point that when Amazon removed 1984 (and Animal Farm too) from Kindle devices, it was because it was discovered that the books were added to the Kindle store by a publisher that didn't have the rights to sell the books. And that the books were subsequently re-added to the Kindle store by the publisher that DID have the rights to them. The customers were refunded and credited for their troubles.

      The analogy that it's akin to breaking into one's home is a bit of a stretch.

    2. Re:Amazon Deleting 1984 Was a Warning... by Ephemeriis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You left out the point that when Amazon removed 1984 (and Animal Farm too) from Kindle devices, it was because it was discovered that the books were added to the Kindle store by a publisher that didn't have the rights to sell the books. And that the books were subsequently re-added to the Kindle store by the publisher that DID have the rights to them. The customers were refunded and credited for their troubles.

      The analogy that it's akin to breaking into one's home is a bit of a stretch.

      Granted, the publisher did not have the rights to those books. That is true.

      But it wasn't really those books being pulled from the store that surprised me. What surprised me was those books being deleted from Kindles.

      If I go buy a paper copy of 1984 and it turns out that the publisher doesn't have the right to it, that book will be pulled from store shelves, but I'll still have my book sitting at home.

      Amazon did the digital equivalent of sending someone to your house to forcibly collect the offending book. Sure, you were refunded... But that doesn't make me feel much better.

      --
      "Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
  6. Re:alternatives to Amazon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Then your medium-sized town is an exception.

  7. Re:alternatives to Amazon by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Can't say I'll miss porn written for schoolgirls,"

    Maybe they'll ban Twilight next.

  8. Re:alternatives to Amazon by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Can't say I'll miss porn written for schoolgirls..."

    But that's just where it starts.* I don't want to misapply Martin Niemöller's "first they came for the Jews...." quote here, because he was talking about something even worse than censorship, but the principle is the same. If you wait until they get around to affecting you directly, that's way too late. Regardless of what one thinks of these graphic novels (which are the male/male equivalent of disposable paperback romance novels), it should be alarming that the world's largest book seller is removing them from the world's largest e-bookstore. If you have any "guilty pleasures" at all in your entertainment choices (gross-out movies, violent action films, slasher videos, "edgy" comedians, any variety of porn), keep in mind that there are people who want to suppress those too. So it should be important to you – personally – to stop them long before they get there.

    *Actually it started (as far as I've heard) with erotic novels that contained the word "rape" in the title. Amazon's been quietly disappearing books from the Kindle store for a while now.

    "Where do people go when they give up Amazon?"

    Barnes and Noble would be the closest equivalent, both in terms of online dead-tree retailing and a good ebook/reader system. I haven't heard of them pulling books from that system based on someone disapproving of the content. At least not yet.

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    http://alternatives.rzero.com/