Quote:
Originally Posted by dgatwood
Wal-Mart isn't even remotely a monopoly, either, making that rather moot, but if it were, the legal problem would be one of discoverability. You know where to find adult goods because you know that adult goods exist. That's easy in a brick-and-mortar world.
Now jump fifty or a hundred years into the future. Print is dead. There's one search engine, and it blocks adult sites. One bookseller has 95% of the market, and it blocks adult books. Do your great grandkids still know where to find their porn? Do they even still know that porn exists?
And even that isn't a fully adequate example, because institutional knowledge keeps reminding us that porn exists. People don't forget things very quickly. But what about new ideas that challenge the status quo? If you're in a situation where the major search system and the major bookseller both decide to block some new, up-and-coming idea, they would effectively prevent anyone from discovering it in the first place.
Any serious discussion of freedom of expression must consider not just the known controversial subjects, but also any unknown controversial subjects that might come up in the future. That's why allowing any company to have too much control over a market—any market—is fundamentally a concern even if that company's current leadership has zero intent to abuse that position right now.
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Begging your pardon sir, I have never bought adult stuff in a B&M store.
I always bought through either a catalog or online. This is not due to embarrassment but cost. Catalog and online is nearly always cheaper than a B&M store in this case.
Oh and I used Walmart because I have heard the Same Exact stuff that you are saying Amazon does. Different products but same exact wording.
E-book, book, peas are all marketed exactly the same. Brand is all it is.
Oh and on libraries, there are really only 3 factors, which will people likely borrow, the cost to get the books and storage. Cost being the most important of the three.
Excuse me but adult books are for sale at Amazon. The category is EROTICA. And as of a search yesterday, there are 239,000 in that category. Which is down about 50,000 or so since Amazon changed its borrow rate.
Now Amazon does block certain types but that is entirely their choice. Other places will sell those types of books.
Not that hard to find if you know what to look for.
Oh and on the search engine blocking, that is the ad part blocking not the search engine.