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Books With "Questionable Content" Being Deleted From ebookstores In Sweeping Ban
Nate the greatest writes "The Kernel started an uproar last week when they 'discovered' that the Kindle Store and other ebookstores sell adult content in the erotica category. None of the content is actually illegal, but it is icky enough that the major ebookstores decided to respond by removing anything even vaguely questionable. Unfortunately, they went too far, resulting in an act of censorship the likes of which we haven't seen since Paypal went after the indie ebook distributor Smashwords. The Daily Mail reports that WH Smith went so far as to shut down their website with the promise that it won't reopen until all self-published titles have been removed, and according to BBC News, B&N is also deleting content. Numerous authors have reported on KBoards that Amazon and B&N have removed far more than just the titles that feature questionable content like pseudo-incest; they appear to be running keyword searches and removing any title that mentions innocuous words like babysitter, sister, or teenager. And they're not the only ones; there's a new report that Kobo has jumped on the ban wagon as well."
One person can do it to a hundred million. That's a big difference.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
Example #4: Also read the well written BBC article as well.
Sure, I got sucked into the thought that this was about censorship. Then I did the opposite of /., I read the articles and discovered that instead of this being Bad Amazon, Bad B&N, it was more along the lines of Bad Authors who snuck their works in under the self-publishing loop hole.
Had a smut author walked in the front door of Amazon or B&N and said "hey, will you sell my ... works ... centered around incest, rape, and pedophilia" they would be handed a copy of those store's book offering policy and shown the door. Instead, the authors use the self-publishing (and not well policed) approach to get into Amazon's store.
In the end I did not see this a censorship. Amazon and B&N are not pulling an ebook from a reader, they are removing content that violates their business model. That is their right. As others stated, authors can find other means to promote and sell their work other then through Amazon. I am sure one can still go out there and find such literary works like "I raped my drunk little girl", download them to their Kindle/Nook and ... "enjoy them?" That is not censorship. Now if a Government makes broad sweep removals requirement for all businesses...then we can debate censorship.
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
X is the MAFIAA rating. The exes after that first one are marketing.
You're looking for quotes? See my journal.
It's not really scaremongering. Very small mistakes can cause spiralling damage if you run a nationwide chain on cashflow. We've seen that over and over again in this country; survivable situations became unsurvivable because of relatively small changes. Bad press is bad press, but bad press at the point of your business cycle when you are buying up lots of christmas stock and hoping to sell it is not bad press; it's economic uncertainty.
Check out this article:
http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/articles/23011-whsmith-profits-up-3-as-sales-continue-to-fall
WHSmith is profitable, but on falling sales. Which areas of the business keep them profitable? Railway station and airport branches. What do they sell? Newspapers. By the ton. Do you see the point I am making? The second-most-popular newspaper in the country (which doesn't really have a transferrable readership) can _seriously_ influence the financial health of WHS.
Besides, if you'd seen the WHS site beforehand, the idea that little bits of it could be closed down might possibly be unworkable; it was a mess.
Before anyone mods parent as trollbait, here are indisputable examples of Incest in the Bible:
1) And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugitive on the earth, at the east side of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and brought forth Henoch: and he built a city, and called the name thereof by the name of his son Henoch. - Genesis 4:16-17
2) Howbeit, otherwise also she is truly my sister, the daughter of my father, and not the daughter of my mother, and I took her to wife. And after God brought me out of my father’s house, I said to her: Thou shalt do me this kindness: In every place, to which we shall come, thou shalt say that I am thy brother. - Genesis 20:12-13
3) And Thare lived seventy years, and begot Abram, and Nachor, and Aran. And these are the generations of Thare: Thare begot Abram, Nachor, and Aran. And Aran begot Lot. And Aran died before Thare his father, in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nachor married wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai: and the name of Nachor’s wife, Melcha, the daughter of Aran, father of Melcha, and father of Jescha. - Genesis 11:26-29
4) And the elder said to the younger Our father is old, and there is no man left on the earth, to come in unto us after the manner of the whole earth. Come, let us make him drunk with wine, and let us lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the elder went in and lay with her father: but he perceived not neither when his daughter lay down, nor when she rose up. And the next day the elder said to the younger: Behold I lay last night with my father, let us make him drink wine also to night, and thou shalt lie with him, that we may save seed of our father. They made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in, and lay with him: and neither then did he perceive when she lay down, nor when she rose up. So the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father. - Genesis 19:31-36
5) The sons of Merari: Moholi and Musi. These are the kindreds of Levi by their families. 20 And Amram took to wife Jochabed his aunt by the father’s side: and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of Amram’s life were a hundred and thirty-seven. - Exodus 6:19-20
And finally the best one combines incest and rape:
6) And Thamar came to the house of Amnon her brother: but he was laid down: and she took meal and tempered it: and dissolving it in his sight she made little messes. And taking what she had boiled, she poured it out, and set it before him, but he would not eat: and Amnon said: Put out all persons from me. And when they had put all persons out, Amnon said to Thamar: Bring the mess into the chamber, that I may eat at thy hand. And when she had presented him the meat, he took hold of her, and said: Come lie with me, my sister. She answered him: Do not so, my brother, do not force me: for no such thing must be done in Israel. Do not thou this folly. But he would not hearken to her prayers, but being stronger overpowered her and lay with her. [II Kings 13:12-14]
I think you're over playing the difference.
Erotica: Introductory paragraph -> Sex.
Romance: Introductory paragraph -> Foreplay -> Sex.
I wouldn't make much of it.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
You're confusing the term "censorship" with the First Amendment.
Anyone can be a censor. The First Amendment only limits the government's ability to censor.
My stupid web site
For anyone wondering, this is actually freely available on The Internet Archive
You're confusing right-wing conservative nutjobs with Republican Christian nutjobs, who are neither right-wing nor particularly conservative in the sense of smaller government and more liberty.
As to your main point, you probably know a lot of third-wave feminists. Sex-positive feminism is certainly a thing, but it is hardly unopposed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_Sex_Wars
RUGBYRUGBYRUGBY
I just did a quick search for "erotica ebook store" and came up with:
www.ellorascave.com
www.ebook-eros.com
www.sirenpublishing.com
and of course, literotica.com is still free.
If Amazon, B&N and friends don't want that business, I'm sure these folks and others will be happy to have the extra customers. The nice thing about shopping on the internet is that all the stores are equally close.
Censorship based on the use of common words is something that happens all over these days. I have a few websites with Google Adsense on them. Google sends spam e-mails about "adult content" on a poetry site I have regularly. It's mostly poetry from the 16th, 17th and 18th century on that site. Words like "lover" trigger their malfunctioning bot. Webmasters have the choice between censoring perfectly normal content, and in my case poems, that no human in their right mind would have a problem with. I'm not shocked or amazed that this is happening with ebooks, Google has been doing this for a long time now. It reminds me of the book 1984. I'm glad this is getting some attention here today - because this is far more common than most people realize.
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
I remember Barnes & Noble making a big thing about how it supported banned books like Huckleberry Finn and The Lorax. They had signs and buttons reading "I read banned books!" all over the store.
I guess now its "I only read the books I'm allowed to read!"
Already done.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
This started because of an expose by the Kernel. The Kernel is located in the UK. The Slashdot post then points out that WH Smith shut down their website. WH Smith is in the UK. The post also mentions a BBC report. I don't have to tell you where the BBC is located. Although Amazon and B&N are themselves world-wide, this is clearly instigated by and carried out by Europeans and British specifically, and by the media over there. Googling up "cnn amazon porn" brings up nothing recent (the same thing with BBC produces the appropriate articles).
What's this Americans stuff?
Someone was clearly brain damaged by high school. MOST literature contains sex. Certainly nearly all of the good stuff. This is because most humans have sex in their lives. It makes it important in narratives about humans. Joyce's Ulysses includes a guy masturbating in the bushes while perving on a cripple and a vivid description of a rimjob. Gravity's Rainbow is basically a 760 page dick joke. The Sound and the Fury is all about how women's liberation (promiscuity in Faulkner's mind) affected Southern men. McCarthy's Child of God has graphic descriptions of necrophilia. Very few major novels since the 1950s have been vague about sex. Even before then it was almost always there (what did you think the entire conflict of The Sun Also Rises was, or Dorian Gray, or Whitman's poetry?), it just wasn't as explicit or graphic.
"Conservative" does not mean "favoring smaller government and more liberty"; that's "libertarian".
"Conservative" means "favoring things as they once were; opposing change".*
It's a mere historical coincidence that in recent history, change has been away from smaller government, and so libertarianism became conservative.
In older eras, change was toward smaller government, and conservatives were in favor of preserving the authority of the church and state. The Christian nutjobs still pine for those "good old days", and that makes them even more conservative than the libertarian type of conservative.
*(Strictly speaking "conservative" should be distinguished from "reactionary" in that the former favors preserving things as they are now, and the latter favors bringing back things that used to be, in which case all of the aforementioned "conservatives" are really "reactionaries" since society has already changed away from the way they wish it still was).
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."