Censorship or Business?

[Sydney's Mom]

I'm facinated by the threads attacking Amazon's defense of the pedophile book and the threads attacking Amazon's censorship of less "objectionable" books. And I love polls! So instead of reading through 800 posts, lets vote - is it censorship or business? For myself, I would have preferred Amazon sell it all, and not engage in any qualitative judgements about what I read. But it appears they lost that battle with the pedophile books, and so we are stuck. What do you think?

[HarryT]

This is not news. Moved to "General Discussions".

[screwballl]

This is a bit of a one sided poll with the opinions already laid out.

They have every right to sell or not sell whatever they want as a private business, regardless of my personal opinion of the book or content being sold or removed.

[Mortis]

I think the choices given are far to narrow to really give a breakdown, I personally can't fit my opinion of this into one of the available choices.

Amazon is a company and as such can and will make decisions based on their judgment, for their shareholders sake I, for one, hope they make good solid money making decisions. If this means they have to give into the moral lobbyists, or what ever we are calling them this week, then it is only for the sales to show one way or another.

My choice, if it were available, would be; Amazon is only obligated to follow the letter of their contracts, anything else is irrelevant. Have they done this in the recent cases, thats for the courts to decide, our idle speculation, while mildly amusing, is worthless.

Just my 2p worth.

Cheers

[Barcey]

I think that Amazon deserves the criticism especially since they've designed their business model to only allow you to get Kindle content from Amazon. Yes they're a business and can do whatever they want but that doesn't put them beyond criticism. Their customers should hold them to some standards beyond deciding on a whim if they potential sales are worth more then the negative publicity. I don't want special interest groups deciding what I'm able to purchase and read.

What will they decide when the next Satanic Verses scenario comes up?

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This is not news. Moved to "General Discussions".

Thanks HarryT - I recognized that as soon as I posted it.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by Mortis

I think the choices given are far to narrow to really give a breakdown, I personally can't fit my opinion of this into one of the available choices.

Amazon is a company and as such can and will make decisions based on their judgment, for their shareholders sake I, for one, hope they make good solid money making decisions. If this means they have to give into the moral lobbyists, or what ever we are calling them this week, then it is only for the sales to show one way or another.

My choice, if it were available, would be; Amazon is only obligated to follow the letter of their contracts, anything else is irrelevant. Have they done this in the recent cases, thats for the courts to decide, our idle speculation, while mildly amusing, is worthless.

Just my 2p worth.

Cheers

Sorry, I can't edit the poll. But the poll was not supposed to determine what the law or right business practice is. That is for judges and Amazon to decide. While it is mildly amusing to debate both the law and the best business practice, what really interests me is how you feel. There were some vehement posts when the pedophile book was being sold by Amazon, and Amazon was defending it. And there were some vehement posts decrying the censorship. Which do you prefer? Big Brother or Unrestricted Freedom?

[ProfCrash]

You need a category for "It is not censorship, it is Amazon's private business and they can sell what they want."

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Sorry, I can't edit the poll.

Poll questions can be added or deleted by any mod.

Just ask.

[HansTWN]

I don't see myself in any of your choices. I don't have a problem with Amazon doing what they think is best for their business -- I have a problem with people pressuring businesses to adhere to their standards of morality. And with not enough others to speak up against the practice.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Barcey

I think that Amazon deserves the criticism especially since they've designed their business model to only allow you to get Kindle content from Amazon.

No they haven't; you can get Kindle content from many places, including MR.

[wvcherrybomb]

Here we go again.

I wonder if other places are removing, or refusing to sell, certain books?

[mr ploppy]

Did you choose the pedo book specifically to skew the results? Amazon's ebook burning didn't stop at the pedo book, and it is unlikely to stop at gay erotica either. A better poll question would be should Amazon bend to outside pressure and remove selected books that a small minority find objectionable. Very few books will not be objectionable to someone. I've even seen people complaining about Scooby Doo.

[JeremyR]

I couldn't care less

But yeah, as I said in the pedophile book thread, once Amazon started removing one book because of content, they'd start removing others. You can't just have a little censorship.

Still, it would be worth it if it included Piers Anthony.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Did you choose the pedo book specifically to skew the results? Amazon's ebook burning didn't stop at the pedo book, and it is unlikely to stop at gay erotica either. A better poll question would be should Amazon bend to outside pressure and remove selected books that a small minority find objectionable. Very few books will not be objectionable to someone. I've even seen people complaining about Scooby Doo.

Yes, I chose it because it presents the choice clearly - censorship or 1st amendment. Of course Amazon can do what it wants for its business, and it isn't the government, so there is no 1st amendment argument. I just wondered, if given the choice between censorship or 1st amendment, which would you choose? It is like the parents who object to violence or sex on television - do you want someone acting as Big Brother, and saving you from this, or do you want to make the choice yourself? The Pedophile book is good, because if you decide you don't want someone telling you what you can read, then you have to tolerate the pedophile book being for sale.