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While I personally find the book in question objectionable, I do think that this is a storm in a teacup stirred up by an irresposible media.
While it is true that pedophiles are sick individuals who do serious harm to the children who become the objects of their attentions, I doubt very much a book could make such a person, imho there are far worse influences that hurt far greater numbers of individuals, adults and children alike.
To take this to the extreme, my own personal belief is that religion is a load of crap, and only serves to divide humanity, causing the death and abuse of countless millions of people each year. I may argue that books such as the Bible and Koran, or indeed any religious fantasy that is used in the brainwashing and abuse of its victims should be banned.
I suppose most would consider the above example to be extreme, yet there are countries that do ban opposing religeous and political works. In the developed world these bans are never applauded.
I suppose my point is that while there is a great many books that are of little moral value, they do have a place. Indeed, such a book written by a peadophile may be of great interest to people interested in researching this deviance in some people.
It may also be speculated that such outrage is extremely counter productive. It is ironic that in all their outrage, these people have become the best friends of the author, doing little more than promoting the book, raising sales considerably.
I would like to bet that even though Amazon has withdrawn it, he has likely sold far more copies in the days it was available than it would have sold in years, had it not hit the headlines.
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