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Paypal Forces E-Book Publisher To Censor Erotic Content

Posted by Soulskill on from the all-about-the-benjamins dept.

hey! writes "On February 18 of this year, global giant payment processor PayPal sent eBook publisher Smashwords an ultimatum: if Smashwords didn't remove all eBooks with certain erotic content from its catalog in the next several days, PayPal would immediately stop handling payments. Smashword's TOS already precluded child pornography, but now PayPal wants them to also censor depictions of consenting, non-related adults acting out incest fantasies. Likewise, fantasy novels in which human characters transform into non-humans are affected if those characters have sex. ZDNet has a summary of the impact of these changes, which would among other things ban Vladmir Nabokov's Lolita. As outrage mounts, finger pointing is in full swing. Smashwords blames PayPal, and PayPal blames the banks it deals with. The crux seems to be that erotica buyers have a higher rate of 'chargebacks' — customers who buy stuff then demand their money back. Fair enough, but is a customer really more likely to return a book because it depicts one kind of fantasy between consenting adults vs. another? Perhaps the problem is just the quality of writing." Note: as you can probably tell from the summary, the linked articles (while factual in nature) discuss subjects that may not be suitable for workplace reading.

6 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. It's not enough... by houstonbofh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not enough that you want unfettered access to remove funds at whim from my bank account. Now you want to decide what I read too? Yet another reason to NOT use Paypal ever...

  2. Wouldn't that include the Game of Thrones books? by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    PayPal wants them to also censor depictions of consenting, non-related adults acting out incest fantasies.

    Someone better tell George Martin not to use Paypal.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  3. Well, there goes ... by PPH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... the Bible.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  4. Re:Wouldn't that include the Game of Thrones books by HellKnite · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Song of Ice and Fire series is fine, because it's not "non-related adults acting out incest fantasies" ... it's actual incest!

  5. Re:The man who fell to Earth? by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about gods that merely look human having sex with humans? There goes half of the ancient mythologies.

  6. Re:The man who fell to Earth? by morari · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On the plus side, it would at least take care of the entire Twilight franchise in one fell swoop. Vampires and werewolves are clearly not human. At best, it'd fall into necrophilia and bestiality.

    --
    "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune