Thread: Smashwords Succumbs to Censorship
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Old 02-27-2012, 07:34 AM   #105
Kali Yuga
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrsJoseph View Post
If paypal wanted to be the moral police of the internet...they should have started the way they planned to continue.
They aren't acting as the "moral police." They're saying they don't want to work with people who are selling content that involves "bestiality, rape-for-titillation, incest and underage erotica."

That is PayPal's choice, in exactly the same way that it is your choice to decide to do business with PayPal and/or Smashwords.

It's also the same pressure tactic used by many political activists via boycotts or stock divestiture or... canceling an account. Hmmm.

Anyway, if Smashwords does in fact support your rights to access that content, then they ought to stop doing business with PayPal. So far they aren't taking that route. Instead, PayPal's demand has become a trigger, and Smashwords says (and I quote from the article the OP linked):

• "...underage erotica is not a problem for us. We already have some of the industry’s strictest policies prohibiting underage characters."
• "The legality of incest is murky. It creates a potential legal liability for Smashwords as our business and our books become more present in more jurisdictions around the world.... The business considerations compel me to not fall on the sword for incest. I realize this is an imperfect decision."
• "...I don’t want to be a party to anyone enjoying animals for sexual gratification, for the same reason we’ve never allowed pedophilia books. I don’t want to publish it, sell it, or distribute it. The TOS is now modified to reflect this."
• "Although our Terms of Service prohibits books that advocate violence against others, we did not specifically identify rape. This was an oversight on our part."

So there ya go, Smashwords already redlines 1 of the 4 categories, was lax in enforcing their own policies on 2 of 4 categories, and was pushed to add the fourth. Your ire ought to be directed as much at Smashwords as PayPal.
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