Amazon Censorship Expands - Page 33

kindlekitten · 01-10-2011, 01:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

The do have a notable number of "rape fantasy" titles, including short stories with titles like "What Does A Gal Wear to a Snuff Party", "Amy's Rape", "Raped Virgin Cheerleader Part II" and "Drunk Leslie Learns a Lesson". There are 148 results for "rape erotica" in the Kindle Store.

I was logged in for that search - I should be getting some interesting recommendations from Amazon soon.

d00d! thanks for taking one for the team! so sorry about your reading recs for the near future though!

Quote:

Originally Posted by david_e

Perhaps it is time for this thread to be moved to the Self Promotion category, as that is all it has ever really been.

It was clearly evident to everyone taking the time to read this never-ending commercial that you were not the victim of censorship but of your own poor business decision, whether entered into yourself or by representative, to accept an agreement you have now deemed to be too vague. If it wasn’t too vague when they were selling your books it cannot now be too vague when they decide, within their rights, to stop selling your books. And as you have made no indication that you plan to remove your entire catalogue of work from Amazon, we can only conclude that you do find the terms, as vague as you feel they are, acceptable enough to continue to do business with them.

Censorship is a very serious issue and should be treated as such. If we are continually presented with these cases of author histrionics falsely labeled as censorship we are going to become so leery and so weary as to be numb when the real thing appears. Who, then, will jump to the fight? Certainly not the self-serving, self-labeled victims such as this jamthecat person. They will be too busy lining up for interviews and hoping to get their pictures taken, all the while wearing a t-shirt with their ISBN numbers listed on the front.

he's right! this is not censorship, this is a business decision!

CWatkinsNash · 01-10-2011, 01:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

d00d! thanks for taking one for the team! so sorry about your reading recs for the near future though!

No problem, happy to help.

Besides, with some of the random searches I've done in the past (incessant curiosity + boredom), this is nothing. A friend and I actually made a game of it one night. I don't even remember how it started, something bizarre she was looking for, and I jokingly said, "If it ain't on Amazon, it's on Ebay." You don't even want to know what THOSE searches were for (although the FBI probably does). It took me two days to unclog my recs because I forgot to log out and had to weed them out of my history one at a time.

Damn, I just realized - I should have logged into my roommate's account before running those searches today. *makes mental note for tomorrow's trickery*

kindlekitten · 01-10-2011, 01:47 AM

*makes note to never share cyber anythings with above poster ever!* ;o)

caleb72 · 01-10-2011, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david_e

Perhaps it is time for this thread to be moved to the Self Promotion category, as that is all it has ever really been.

Strange thing to say as the author joined this thread only after the matter had been discussed by forum members for many pages.

Or are you cynical enough to think that this thread has somehow been manufactured deliberately by the author as a promotion?

Quote:

Censorship is a very serious issue and should be treated as such.

Agreed.

Regards
Caleb

K-Thom · 01-10-2011, 07:12 AM

Quote:

Or are you cynical enough to think that this thread has somehow been manufactured deliberately by the author as a promotion?

Are you naive enough (no insult meant) to think this has never been done before here on MR? By authors, publishers, manufacturers, retailers?

carld · 01-10-2011, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david_e

Perhaps it is time for this thread to be moved to the Self Promotion category, as that is all it has ever really been.

This is extremely unfair and unkind.

carld · 01-10-2011, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

d00d! thanks for taking one for the team! so sorry about your reading recs for the near future though!

he's right! this is not censorship, this is a business decision!

No, when you treat two similar books differently based on the sexual-orientation depicted it's censorship, and or discrimination.

kindlekitten · 01-10-2011, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carld

No, when you treat two similar books differently based on the sexual-orientation depicted it's censorship, and or discrimination.

get it right. only the government can censor, once again, regardless how anyone feels about it, this is a business decision

boxcorner · 01-10-2011, 10:00 AM

Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush.
Here we go round the mulberry bush
On a cold and frosty morning.

carld · 01-10-2011, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

get it right. only the government can censor, once again, regardless how anyone feels about it, this is a business decision

Please explain to me how discrimination based on sexual orientation is a business decision. By that logic this is just a business decision too:

DMSmillie · 01-10-2011, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carld

No, when you treat two similar books differently based on the sexual-orientation depicted it's censorship, and or discrimination.

There's a hell of a lot of discrimination out there, still, on the basis of sexual orientation, and it's right that people should stand up against it and speak out against it.

In this case, though, as far as I know we simply don't have anywhere near enough information to know or be able to state that that is why these two books were dropped. If one could show a systematic pattern of books containing same-gender sex being dropped, while similar books containing opposite-gender sex are not, then it would be different. Simply being able to point to books with opposite-gender sex that haven't been dropped isn't sufficient on its own, though, since one can equally well point to other books with same-gender sex that haven't been dropped. There needs to be a perceivable pattern with significant differences in the sexual orientations portrayed in books dropped by Amazon in order to demonstrate that it's the result of prejudice and discrimination, and not just, for example, ad hoc responses to complaints or adverse publicity about specific books.

mr ploppy · 01-10-2011, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

get it right. only the government can censor, once again, regardless how anyone feels about it, this is a business decision

Yes, a business decision to remove books from sale. Censorship would imply that they were cutting content from books. What we have here is book suppression. Amazon have decided that they don't want Kindle owners to be allowed to read it. The real question is what type of book will they suppress next?

caleb72 · 01-10-2011, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K-Thom

Are you naive enough (no insult meant) to think this has never been done before here on MR? By authors, publishers, manufacturers, retailers?

No insult taken. I'm sure it has been done here and elsewhere. But that doesn't make my point any less valid.

You'd have to be pretty cynical to jump on authors who ended up in a thread discussing their work started by another user just because there have been similar occasions in the past where authors have created threads incognito for that purpose - unless there was a pretty big smoking gun.

The original poster has been in this forum for a while and looking at his posting history I'm not immediately seeing a connection between him and the author - certainly nothing that makes me want to imply the author has manufactured this thread for the purpose of self-promotion, much less attack him outright.

So were you just letting me know that this kind of thing has been done in the past - or did you think that this is what has happened in this thread?

Regards
Caleb

caleb72 · 01-10-2011, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

In this case, though, as far as I know we simply don't have anywhere near enough information to know or be able to state that that is why these two books were dropped. If one could show a systematic pattern of books containing same-gender sex being dropped, while similar books containing opposite-gender sex are not, then it would be different. Simply being able to point to books with opposite-gender sex that haven't been dropped isn't sufficient on its own, though, since one can equally well point to other books with same-gender sex that haven't been dropped. There needs to be a perceivable pattern with significant differences in the sexual orientations portrayed in books dropped by Amazon in order to demonstrate that it's the result of prejudice and discrimination, and not just, for example, ad hoc responses to complaints or adverse publicity about specific books.

I agree. It's just a guess, but I think it's more likely that Amazon received a certain number of complaints about the two books in question - "How to Rape a Straight Guy" is a very provocative title and the other title may have been collateral damage.

Regards
Caleb

kindlekitten · 01-10-2011, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carld

Please explain to me how discrimination based on sexual orientation is a business decision. By that logic this is just a business decision too:

at the time it was.

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01-10-2011, 01:47 AM	#483
kindlekitten Professional Adventuress Posts: 13,368 Karma: 50260224 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: The Olympic Peninsula on the OTHER Washington! (the big green clean one on the west coast!) Device: Kindle, the original! Times Two! and gifting an International Kindle	makes note to never share cyber anythings with above poster ever! ;o)

01-10-2011, 10:00 AM	#489
boxcorner »(°±°)« Posts: 826 Karma: 775629 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: divisive reader	Here we go round the mulberry bush, The mulberry bush, The mulberry bush. Here we go round the mulberry bush On a cold and frosty morning.

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