WHSMith's temporarily shuts down ebook site

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by CallOfCth'reader

I have no problem with erotica or porn, but I certainly don't want to be offered titles along the lines of "I Took My Drunk Daughter", unless the full title also includes the words "To Hospital, Because I Was Worried About Her".

LOL45

[Ravensknight]

SPA's can all go to heck and if this is the first step, then I'll be first in line to crank up the oven.

[MikeB1972]

On the plus side, WH Smiths will soon be a site where you can search for a book without being innundated with x thousand self-pubbed titles in your results - This is good or bad depending on what you are looking for

I wonder where small independent publishing houses will fit in this, will there be a cutoff if a publishing house only published less than a certain number of authors or is it big 5 only.

I must admit I would like to have an option to ignore self-pubbed books in searches (of course I would also like an option on Amazon to ignore books in a foreign languange as well, so mayby I'm just picky)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

While I don't buy those kinds of books, I have no problem with retailers selling them. That said, I do think that they should be filtered into a section that you have to opt in to see them.

The fundamental problem appears not to be the books, but the search engine, in that it's returning erotica in searches where you wouldn't expect it to.

[paola]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The fundamental problem appears not to be the books, but the search engine, in that it's returning erotica in searches where you wouldn't expect it to.

so WHSmith has taken the entire book site down today - but I wonder why isn't Kobo being talked about at all? A very naive search for "Big brother", by Lionel Shriver, returns a page full of rather explicit covers with clear references to incest: regardless of what one thinks of this, I can't figure out the reason for the inconsistency.

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by paola

so WHSmith has taken the entire book site down today - but I wonder why isn't Kobo being talked about at all? A very naive search for "Big brother", by Lionel Shriver, returns a page full of rather explicit covers with clear references to incest: regardless of what one thinks of this, I can't figure out the reason for the inconsistency.

If you read the link Yolina posted to the first article on the BBC news page (Amazon removes abuse-themed e-books from store), in the first couple of sentences it states:

"Amazon and Barnes & Noble both say they are removing books found by technology news site The Kernel, but many others still remain, the BBC has found. WHSmith and Kobo, which feature titles with similar themes, are yet to respond to requests for comment."

[Yolina]

Here's an updated article from the BBC today.

[taming]

There's no excuse for any general book selling website to host the kinds of books found on the Kobo sites. Kobo is rolling out kids accounts that only access a kids version of the site. It appears to be a really good way for kids to buy books, but I don't want to see nasty book covers either. I opened an account for my granddaughter with a monthly book "allowance". At nine, she does not need to be confronted with porn.

[paola]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Here's an updated article from the BBC today.

yes, is the one I linked, which is why

Originally Posted by l_macd

If you read the link Yolina posted to the first article on the BBC news page (Amazon removes abuse-themed e-books from store), in the first couple of sentences it states:

"Amazon and Barnes & Noble both say they are removing books found by technology news site The Kernel, but many others still remain, the BBC has found. WHSmith and Kobo, which feature titles with similar themes, are yet to respond to requests for comment."

it surprises me that Kobo is taking no action given that WHSmith takes its books from Kobo! The measure is drastic indeed, as at this time you can't even buy a pen from WHSmith online...

[soulfuldog]

True that's a good point about not being able to buy/browse anything at all on WH Smith. Not sure why they couldn't just cut their link to Kobo since as you say, that's where WH Smith take their books from.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by paola

yes, is the one I linked, which is why

it surprises me that Kobo is taking no action given that WHSmith takes its books from Kobo! The measure is drastic indeed, as at this time you can't even buy a pen from WHSmith online...

Ooops sorry... brain cells a bit slow today (I blame it on staying up all night Saturday to watch the V8 Bathurst 1000... it's getting harder to recover with age )

And yes you'd think they'd have at a way of taking just ebook sales offline without killing the whole site!

[pdurrant]

So are these ebook stores going to give refunds to people who bought the books they've now pulled? I suspect not.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

So are these ebook stores going to give refunds to people who bought the books they've now pulled? I suspect not.

The fact that the book is no longer offered for sale doesn't necessarily mean that purchased books will disappear from peoples' personal libraries. But it's the old story - unless you download as soon as you buy, you're taking a chance.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by paola

yes, is the one I linked, which is why

it surprises me that Kobo is taking no action given that WHSmith takes its books from Kobo! The measure is drastic indeed, as at this time you can't even buy a pen from WHSmith online...

Kobo have removed a lot of self-published books, though the criteria for how they decide which to remove (it doesn't seem to be all self-published books) isn't clear. Mine have all been removed. I write non-fiction, military technology & history.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The fundamental problem appears not to be the books, but the search engine, in that it's returning erotica in searches where you wouldn't expect it to.

Then all they need to do is fix the search engine.