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."

Comments

Re:Tired of this nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

To make it worse there's this pseudo fanatical craze to get rid of nudity with a passion but violence?

Nudity is ALWAYS exploitation of women. As feminist say, sexual exploitation of women is worst then murder. Since feminism is the official state doctrine, it is unsurprising that this fanatical craze is present everywhere.

INB4 Misogynist! I don't care about women and there obsessive complains, no hate or love. I am just pointing out why there is a crusade against nudity(and not violence) in America.

Romance and Erotica is not the same

[sandytaru]

Erotica and romance novels are two completely different categories. Romance novels usually have some sort of plot or story that would function just fine without the smut. Erotica (aka plot? what plot?) would suffer as a story with the smut stripped out because it takes up the bulk of the content. So that's why erotica is being targeted, but romances are left alone. It has nothing to do with the gender of the authors or the target audience. (Romance novels are also usually 300+ pages unless you're looking at the Harlequin book of the month types, which is why they're not shrink wrapped at the store. Those seeking smut don't have the pages to sit through 250 pages of exposition.) -- Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.