Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
Shopping in general is a painful experience for me.  |
Exactly my point. I was horrified at the pedifile book, but I understood Amazon's reason for carrying it. But as a business, they decided it was better to bend to public opinion rather than stick up for the 1st amendment (since Amazon is not the government, 1st amendment arguments are meaningless, unless the government makes Amazon take down the book). Amazon is now apparently trying to be proactive in taking down some books. They will obviously concentrate on the self-published books, because the books coming through major publishers have already been screened and found not be be obscene (only of interest to purient interests.)
In response to my assertion that Amazon couldn't read all of the books they put up for sale,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Why not? Because they wouldn't make as much money if they spent time confirming that what they sell fits their standards?
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As a business lawyer, I can tell you exactly what their standard is. It is to avoid selling books that will create a huge public uproar. That is their only interest in removing books. They tried to take the high road and argue the 1st amendment, but the public outcry was too much. They are not interested in upholding the 1st amendment to the detriment of their business. Now, would I write standards like that? Of course not! I don't want to debate my business strategy with every author out there. I'm sure Amazon bought some software that looks for certain words, and is slowly rolling that out to all of their books. Today it is titles - tomorrow it will be text. I'm sure you know there are email filters that do exactly the same thing.
I can understand authors who are upset at the lack of strict guidelines. But it was strict guidelines (the 1st amendment) that caused the public relations nightmare that was the pedifile book.
Now, I am not supporting pedifile books. I am just saying if their standard is not the 1st amendment, they (and their customers, and their authors) are looking at a sliding scale, and who knows where that will end. Myself, I prefer the more expansive 1st amendment view. Yes, I have to hold my nose when I see certain things. But that is just my opinion (obviously).