[DiapDealer]

The right to "skip" copryrighted content you don't like when reading is inviolate. You don't need permission to do that.

I have no idea if this app combined with their special versions (is it a new proprietary DRM scheme that makes it possible?) of ebooks constitutes copyright infringement or not, but I know I want it to be deemed so. After all, they're essentially distributing copies of books containing identical unauthorized changes. Those people with the same "level of cleaness" selected would see the exact same altered versions, right? They (the reader) didn't sit down and alter a book for their own personal use ...they let someone else (an algorithm designed by the company that owns Clean Reader) alter it for them (regardless of when or where the alteration happens).

I don't think there'd be any legal questions at all if this app simply Xed out or redacted a user-provided list of "bad" words. To me, that would be the equvalent of a reader "skipping" the stuff they don't like (I'd still find it silly, however). But allowing company X to exchange words (in their specially prepared ebook products) that THEY deem objectionable (only the degree of objectionability seems to be user configurable) with words that THEY deem to be "cleaner" is where things get legally muddy IMO. Again ... I don't personally think when the alterations happen (or who actually pushes the big red Go button that triggers the changes) has much bearing on who made the decisions as to what word gets changed into what in the first place. Clean Reader did.