PayPal as censor?
It has always been my belief that freedom of speech is one of the hardest freedoms to enforce. It's easy when we're all happy and having a lively political debate. But it's hard when the freedom we are upholding is some more sinister - say erotic fiction versus illegal sexuality.
Okay, as a given the internet has allowed more access to pornography than anything else. It did not become the information superhighway, it became a peephole into any number of sensual to sick practices you care to read or watch. And I've found that eBooks have done the same with fiction. Smashwords, who is the eBook distributor (other than Amazon, they supply all the other eBook stores) is full of erotic fiction. And now that people can self publish this nonsense (my freedom to say that), the shelved are teeming with it. Some fun and flirty, some disgusting. Smashwords has always had filters on for illegal acts, such as underage exploitation. But apparently there is also a huge market for incest fiction (i.e. stepparent with stepchild as grownup). Does nothing for me, but if it floats your boat, right? So where does that line end and who monitors its crossing? Well, PayPal has decided they will be the morality monitor. They are going to remove their services from Smashwords if Smashwords does not remove underage erotica (again, they already monitor for that) bestiality fiction, rape for titillation and incest.
Wow.
See, a part of me goes yah! Who needs to read that shit. But then guess what? I've been officially censored too. Yep, I have a short story, it's a short murder mystery, but there is some nonconsensual sex in it (or is there - without giving anything away, this short story involves a lot of misdirection) and because of that, I have been asked to remove it from the Smashwords distribution site and their catalogue. So from now on, the only people that will read A Very Bad Day are those who are compatible with the Amazon format. And sadly, I think this short story is one of the best things I've ever constructed. Sadly, murder mysteries sometimes involve violence against women.
And it's not just that, I'm outlining my seventh Kate Carpenter mystery - and it was going to involve the disappearance of a child. But not, I can't go there in case it gets censored. I was already thinking that I'm going to have to change it to an 18 year old college student. Changes the whole face and feel of the story. And don't get me wrong, nothing was going to happen to the child, we weren't even going to see the child from disappearance to end of book on her return. But I can't risk my income stream being interrupted by some random computer search picking up one random word in the 96,000 that will become that book and banning me.
Do I feel that the overall quality of eBooks needs to be controlled? Oh yes. With the evolution of self publishing, there is so much poorly written, unedited, unconstructed boring crap out there that I pity the public (and myself) sorting through what they want to spend their money on. Do I think this is the way to do it? No, I don't.
I would like to say I do admire the way Smashwords is handling this - I'm not about badmouthing them. They are doing what I'm doing - figuring out how to get through this with an intact business model. But PayPal, I think you're veering off the path.
Just curious - does PayPal offer their services on porn sites? I've never paid for porn, and I'm curious about that.
Freedom of speech - what a concept. I'd be interested to hear what you have to say. And just for fun, I'm going to make A Very Bad Day free on Amazon.com 99 cents, so you can read what's been censored and decide for yourself. I'd make it free but Amazon won't let me. ; )
http://www.amazon.com/Very-bloody-short-story-ebook/dp/B00579E6PY/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1330177547&sr=8-7
Okay, as a given the internet has allowed more access to pornography than anything else. It did not become the information superhighway, it became a peephole into any number of sensual to sick practices you care to read or watch. And I've found that eBooks have done the same with fiction. Smashwords, who is the eBook distributor (other than Amazon, they supply all the other eBook stores) is full of erotic fiction. And now that people can self publish this nonsense (my freedom to say that), the shelved are teeming with it. Some fun and flirty, some disgusting. Smashwords has always had filters on for illegal acts, such as underage exploitation. But apparently there is also a huge market for incest fiction (i.e. stepparent with stepchild as grownup). Does nothing for me, but if it floats your boat, right? So where does that line end and who monitors its crossing? Well, PayPal has decided they will be the morality monitor. They are going to remove their services from Smashwords if Smashwords does not remove underage erotica (again, they already monitor for that) bestiality fiction, rape for titillation and incest.
Wow.
See, a part of me goes yah! Who needs to read that shit. But then guess what? I've been officially censored too. Yep, I have a short story, it's a short murder mystery, but there is some nonconsensual sex in it (or is there - without giving anything away, this short story involves a lot of misdirection) and because of that, I have been asked to remove it from the Smashwords distribution site and their catalogue. So from now on, the only people that will read A Very Bad Day are those who are compatible with the Amazon format. And sadly, I think this short story is one of the best things I've ever constructed. Sadly, murder mysteries sometimes involve violence against women.
And it's not just that, I'm outlining my seventh Kate Carpenter mystery - and it was going to involve the disappearance of a child. But not, I can't go there in case it gets censored. I was already thinking that I'm going to have to change it to an 18 year old college student. Changes the whole face and feel of the story. And don't get me wrong, nothing was going to happen to the child, we weren't even going to see the child from disappearance to end of book on her return. But I can't risk my income stream being interrupted by some random computer search picking up one random word in the 96,000 that will become that book and banning me.
Do I feel that the overall quality of eBooks needs to be controlled? Oh yes. With the evolution of self publishing, there is so much poorly written, unedited, unconstructed boring crap out there that I pity the public (and myself) sorting through what they want to spend their money on. Do I think this is the way to do it? No, I don't.
I would like to say I do admire the way Smashwords is handling this - I'm not about badmouthing them. They are doing what I'm doing - figuring out how to get through this with an intact business model. But PayPal, I think you're veering off the path.
Just curious - does PayPal offer their services on porn sites? I've never paid for porn, and I'm curious about that.
Freedom of speech - what a concept. I'd be interested to hear what you have to say. And just for fun, I'm going to make A Very Bad Day free on Amazon.com 99 cents, so you can read what's been censored and decide for yourself. I'd make it free but Amazon won't let me. ; )
http://www.amazon.com/Very-bloody-short-story-ebook/dp/B00579E6PY/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1330177547&sr=8-7
Labels: Calgary authors, censorship, first amendment, freedom of speech, PayPal, pornography, writing
posted by Deborah Nicholson | 6:26 a.m.
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