If we are going to have censorship at all, this is how it should be: Not government regulation but public disapproval bringing weight to bear
"The online retailer Amazon has bowed to threats of a mass boycott over its decision to sell a guide to pedophilia.
Amazon quietly stopped sales of the self-published electronic book The Paedophile's Guide to Love & Pleasure: A Child-Lover's Code Of Conduct yesterday, a day after defending it on the grounds of free speech.
The e-book went on sale two weeks ago but hit the headlines only after news of its publication spread among users of Facebook and Twitter, prompting widespread fury and calls for it to be pulled. The outrage was further fuelled when Amazon said that, while they "do not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, we do support the rights of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions. Amazon.com believes it is censorship not to sell certain titles because we believe their message is objectionable".
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11 comments:
This is not the first time Amazon has placed profits, or the potential for profit, above any sense of responsibility, assuming they had any to start with. The First Amendment was not intended to protect pedophiles/child molesters, nor should anything protect them. In fact, there should be a public bounty on them, say, $1000. a head. That will end the problem. Permanently.
Anon 2:51,
I agree with your sentements 100%. Especially the "$1,000 bounty. I have a young daughter and if she were approached or molested by a pedophile I'd kill him. I'd probably go to jail for a long time but that's the price I'm willing to pay. But that's a personal judgement.
However, as much as I'm loath to say it, I believe this issue about the book being banned should be one that the SCOTUS decides.
Come on, guys, books don't kill people. Just because you read The Turner Diaries doesn't mean you're going to blow up buildings. Sure, Timothy McVeigh read that book, but so did thousands of others who haven't committed any crimes. I've read books about money laundering, how to be a cocaine smuggler, etc, and I've yet to do something illegal.
Would I read that a pedophile book? Nope, not interested, but the first amendment protects it. You can't jail people for what they write unless it's a direct threat. Otherwise it would be illegal to write a how to guide on turning semi-automatics into fully-automatics.
Amazon of course is a private company and they can choose what to sell and what's best for their business, so I don't think anyone will be suing here, there's simply no case.
However, the question remains, will they now stop selling every offensive book they have? Because they have plenty.
This has absolutely NOTHING to do with censorship. It would be complete arrogance on Amazon's part to think they are in a position to censor. What they do have, as a private company, the choice to market anything they choose that fits with their company's image. They CHOOSE to market pedophile books.
"However, the question remains, will they now stop selling every offensive book they have? Because they have plenty."
From authors such as Bush, Palin, Beck, O'Reilly, Coulter, et al.
The 1st amendment protects the author's right to write the book. It says nothing at all about the right of the public to reject the book and any corporate entity that would publish it.
This story is just exactly how it is supposed to work with the small exception that Amazon should have been smart enough to not publish it in the first place.
"What I don’t understand is their hypocrisy; amazon.com sells “The 120 Days of Sodom” by Marquis de Sade, a book which features vivid descriptions of pedophilia, cropophilia, bestiality, rape, violence, torture. Of course, the marquis didn’t call his book a guide, maybe that’s why Amazon isn’t afraid. Books don’t hurt people, guides do. I’m sure Jeffrey Dahmer must have read “The Serial Killer’s Guide to Cannibalism,” how else would he have known what to do without a guide?"
Read more:
http://politicallyincorrectlibertarian.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/books-dont-kill-people/
" In fact, there should be a public bounty on them, say, $1000. a head"
which just (as in this case, which if you know the details was utterly uncalled for and blown way out of proportion) just encourages vigilantism.
There are tens of thousands of people already on "pedophile watchlists" and "sex offenders registries" who are completely innocent and on those lists because of false accusations (little detail: you're put on such lists based on the accusation alone, and not removed if it turns out unfounded) who have to change their name, move to another city (where they're often ran out of town because they're on the list), sometimes have to emigrate to another country and undergo plastic surgery to get away from the lynch mobs.
This book, as explained by the only person on Amazon's forums who even read it (in contrast to the hundreds calling for it to be banned, who'd only seen the title and sometimes a product "review" written by another one of their numbers), in fact isn't a "pedophile manual" at all but a poorly written appeal to pedophiles to stop sexually exploiting children.
That's vigilantism at work.
And now that they're successfull, there are calls for banning dozens of other books, ranging from President Bush's memoirs to the Bible.
Which is no doubt exactly the situation Amazon tried to prevent in the first place.
"there are calls for banning dozens of other books, ranging from President Bush's memoirs to the Bible."
They should be put in the correct sections, "true crime" and "Science Fiction and Fantasy", respectively.
Democracy becomes mob-rule!
...Amazon has every right to sell or not to sell whatever merchandise it sees fit. Think you can do better? Then start your own company and show us how.
...The pedophiles are publishing an instruction manual from which we can learn their tricks and strategies and therefore how to counter them more effectively? Perfect.
...The govt has no right at all to censor a book. Once you give them that power, even for a book as abhorrent as this, they will misuse it. And the pedophiles will find some other way to get a copy of this book, anyway.
...Careful w/that bounty stuff: the sex offender registries have been deliberately littered with false positives, such as teenage boys whose girlfriends were just under the legal age. I think the "no consequences" crowd has largely done this on purpose because they can't abide the idea of accountability.
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