WHSMith's temporarily shuts down ebook site

[Crusader]

The article [Mail Online] is extremely sensationalist, but I think it does highlight a legitimate problem with self-pubbed porn titles flooding online stores. I've been frustrated countless times by having to wade through some very dubious titles in the SFF category.

WHSmith was last night accused of profiting from the sale of vile books glorifying violent pornography, rape, incest and bestiality.

The high street chain openly advertised titles with disturbingly graphic content on its website, right next to children’s literature.

Typing the word ‘daddy’ into the search box, for instance, brings up disturbing fictional accounts of bondage and sexual humiliation, as well as collections of bedtime stories for youngsters.

After The Mail on Sunday alerted WHSmith to the appalling content freely available on its website, executives took the unprecedented decision to take the whole site offline while the explicit ebooks were removed from sale.

‘We will tighten our processes to ensure that this error can never happen again and sincerely apologise to our customers for any offence caused,’ the company said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2hcKsMWp3

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by Crusader

The article is extremely sensationalist.

Yeah, that's the Daily Mail for you - and pretty much what to expect from them really.

Amazon and others also removed a bunch of books:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24491723

[soulfuldog]

Was quite surprised at the BBC singling out Amazon, although it does mention it affects other retailers in the article. But at least their headline "Amazon removes abuse-themed e-books from store" is slightly toned down compared to the Daily Mail's typical OTT nonsense - "WHSmith's vile trade in online rape porn". What an utter abomination of a newspaper it is.

[pdurrant]

Sigh. And 50 Shades of Grey was perfectly acceptable, of course. Or do they want that banned too?

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Sigh. And 50 Shades of Grey was perfectly acceptable, of course. Or do they want that banned too?

That's the thing. Where do you draw the line. Personally I wouldn't be bothered with books like these being available if they comply with the site ToS provided that they are confined to a category of their own and you have to specifically opt in to see the titles.

The BBC article is a far better and far more balanced view on the whole situation.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Personally I wouldn't be bothered with books like these being available provided that they are confined to a category of their own and you have to specifically opt in to see the titles.

I'm happy for searches to be confined to 'U' or '12A' rated material unless an 'all categories' checkbox is checked. A reasonable accommodation for those who don't wish to see such stuff.

But that doesn't seem to be what the Daily Mail is aiming for. That these titles are available at all seems to be a problem in their eyes. Including one title that they claim has sold 300,000 copies. Hmm... that's an awful lot of people who don't share the DM's position.

[JoHunt]

WH Smith partners with Kobo, which apparently is the source of these self-pubs.

From the Evening Standard:

In a statement, the company said: "Last week we were made aware that a number of unacceptable titles were appearing on our website through the Kobo website that has an automated feed to ours.

http://www.standard.co.uk/panewsfeed...e-8877215.html

According to this article, WH Smith will be removing all self-published books for the time being.

The statement said: "Our website will become live again once all self-published ebooks have been removed and we are totally sure that there are no offending titles available.

When our website goes back online it will not display any self-published material until we are completely confident that inappropriate books can never be shown again."

[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.

[paola]

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.

I think the problem is with the covers, that sometimes are extremely explicit - you may not want your kids to stumble upon them, and I can completely understand grown ups who don't want to have to see them, either.

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by paola

I think the problem is with the covers, that sometimes are extremely explicit - you may not want your kids to stumble upon them, and I can completely understand grown ups who don't want to have to see them, either.

Yes, some of those covers really leave nothing to the imagination. The biggest problem I have is that they seem to pop up everywhere [well on Kobo at least] regardless of which category you are looking at. Searching is even worse.

[taming]

Kobo has a terrible search engine. The only way to completely avoid getting porn is to put your search term in quotes and then append it with -erotica. For example: "daddy"-erotica .

[BadBilly]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Sigh. And 50 Shades of Grey was perfectly acceptable, of course. Or do they want that banned too?

Your comment leads me to believe you've never actually read 50 Shades of Grey. The most offensive thing about that book is just how poorly written it is. I only read the first of the three, but it was quite chaste. I think it took eight chapters before there was a kiss. What sex there was in the story was not terribly graphic. Most of the sex was rather ordinary. There was a bit of kink but that consisted of nothing more than some spanking and restraint. Furthermore, everything was consensual. It was like a poorly written Harlequin/Mills & Boon, just dressed up in the tiniest bit of kink.

So, absolutely nothing like a story involving rape, incest, or bestiality. So, your comment that they are somehow equivalent is silly. I did stop after reading the first one, though, as it was rather bad, so my comments are based on that.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by BadBilly

Your comment leads me to believe you've never actually read 50 Shades of Grey. [...]
So, absolutely nothing like a story involving rape, incest, or bestiality. So, your comment that they are somehow equivalent is silly.

I haven't read 50 Shades of Grey, so I don't know what's in it. But it's certainly erotica. I don't see that there's a lot of distinction. If sex is OK, and violence is OK, why are sex and violence not OK in a literary work?

[CallOfCth'reader]

Originally Posted by paola

I think the problem is with the covers, that sometimes are extremely explicit - you may not want your kids to stumble upon them, and I can completely understand grown ups who don't want to have to see them, either.

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".

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Yes, some of those covers really leave nothing to the imagination. The biggest problem I have is that they seem to pop up everywhere [well on Kobo at least] regardless of which category you are looking at. Searching is even worse.

Amen to that. I just want to find what new books have been added since the last time I check in a specific category. With Amazon, when searching for SF&F, I find myself wading through page after page of porn and PD books, much of which has nothing to do with SF&F. A lot of self published junk as well, but that's a different rant. I get that Amazon saves money by outsourcing the catalog maintenance to the publishers, but this is costing them money, at least with me. I haven't bought nearly as much this year as I use to.