Paypal Pressured To Play Morality Cop And Forces Smashwords To Censor Authors
from the censorship-is-obscene dept
We have become quite accustomed to Paypal arbitrarily deciding to shut down the payment services for a website with no warning and little recourse. Usually when it does so, it acts through its own volition. However, Paypal also has to deal with the whims of the credit card companies with which it is partnered. With that business arrangement, when a credit card company says to jump, Paypal must comply. When it does so, it effects all its own customers as well. Ebook publisher Smashwords reports that it has become one of the latest recipients of one such action. Under pressure from credit card providers, Paypal has put in place a policy that it would no longer process payments for ebooks that contained themes of rape, incest, beastiality and underage sexual content. It then decided to give Smashwords less than a week to remove all books that fit those criteria.On Saturday, February 18, PayPal’s enforcement division contacted Smashwords with an ultimatum. As with the other ebook retailers affected by this enforcement, PayPal gave us only a few days to achieve compliance otherwise they threatened to deactivate our PayPal services. I've had multiple conversations with PayPal over the last several days to better understand their requirements. Their team has been helpful, forthcoming and supportive of the Smashwords mission. I appreciate their willingness to engage in dialogue. Although they have tried their best to delineate their policies, gray areas remain.This has put tremendous pressure on Smashwords to comply as it claims that it would be near impossible to change payment processors as Paypal is a major part in not only how it processes transactions but also how it pays its authors. So it has made several changes to its terms of service to account for the types of books that Paypal and its credit card partners are not happy about. Keep in mind, this is hard for Smashwords as it feels that authors of erotica are being unfairly targeted by this move.
Their hot buttons are bestiality, rape-for-titillation, incest and underage erotica.
We do not want to see PayPal clamp down further against erotica. We think our authors should be allowed to publish erotica. Erotica, despite the attacks it faces from moralists, is a category worthy of protection. Erotica allows readers to safely explore aspects of sexuality that they might never want to explore in the real world.This is an unfortunate set back for Smashwords as well as for indie authors. While the government in the US is not able to censor speech in this manner, there is little preventing a private company like Paypal or its credit card partners from taking these actions. Yet, Smashwords is not giving up hope. In its latest update, Smashwords notes that it had managed to get the deadline extended as well as the definitions of prohibited content relaxed. It also wants to clarify that neither it nor Paypal are the real villians in this issue.
The moralists forget that we humans are all sexual creatures, and the biggest sex organ is the brain. If it were not the case, none of us would be here. Erotica authors are facing discrimination, plain and simple. Topics that are perfectly acceptable in mainstream fiction are verboten in erotica. That’s not fair.
A lot of people have been attacking Smashwords for my decision to comply with PayPal's requirements. They're pointing their arrows at the wrong target, and they're not helping their cause. We're working to effect positive long term change for the entire Smashwords community, and that includes all our erotica authors and readers.Smashwords then continues by expressing its goal of pulling the credit card companies out into the open to discuss these issues. The behavior of the credit card companies shown here is exactly the type of behavior we advocated against when fighting SOPA/PIPA. Those bills would have given credit card processors the abiltity to kill payment services to companies alledged to be illegal. We warned that such behavior would result in additional harm as legal speech would be swept up along with the potentially illegal speech. Here we see just that. These credit card companies are using their position to censor speech -- some of which may violate obscenity laws, but much of which is likely perfectly legal, protected speech. This is a no win situation for Smashwords. By complying, it must censor the speech of its authors. By not complying, it would lose the ability to serve all its authors.
Over the weekend, many Smashwords authors and publishers demanded we abandon PayPal and find a new payment processor. It's not so simple, and it doesn't solve the greater problem hanging over everyone's head. PayPal is trying to implement the requirements of credit card companies, banks and credit unions. This is where it's all originating. These same requirements will eventually rain down upon every other payment processor. PayPal is trying to maintain their relationships with the credit card companies and banks, just as we want to maintain our relationship with PayPal. People who argue PayPal is the evil villain and we should drop them are missing the bigger picture. Should we give up on accepting credit cards forever? The answer is no. This goes beyond PayPal. Imagine the implications if credit card companies start going after the major ebook retailers who sell erotica?
Finally, Smashwords suggests a plan of action. It wants everyone to work together to put public pressure on the credit card companies in order to get them to change their stance. We saw how effective such efforts were with SOPA/PIPA. We managed to pressure Godaddy and the ESA to drop their support. We can do the same for these credit card companies and their policies that result in censorship.
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Filed Under: censorship, ebooks, morality, payments
Companies: mastercard, paypal, smashwords, visa
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Not surprising, given the company's unfortunate history. By the way, Mike, you forgot the big brouhaha between Minecraft and PayPal, wherein PayPal cut off legitimate payments to Notch in 2010.
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Guess Game of Thrones and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series are out, too.
Is Paypal going to cut Amazon off for selling printed books, e-books, and DVDs with the same criteria? If not, seems pretty hypocritical since I'm sure Paypal makes a lot more from Amazon than Smashwords.
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Shut um down boys!
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They also need to cut off eBay. ;-)
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As we add up the potential victims let's not forget Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" as well as a number of his other plays and sonnets.
As well as, yes, works by established authors of historical fiction set in ancient or dark ages times. In fact, just about any time prior to the Victorian age.
Just who appointed Credit Card companies as the morality police? I seem to recall it being one of the side effects of the DCMA and part of the moral crusade of the first term Bush II presidency.
Such fun.
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And unfortunately, they've pretty much cornered the market there, because there aren't really any other payment processors - that I've been able to find, anyway - that are available internationally and don't require credit cards.
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bingo, simple solution
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Re: bingo, simple solution
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Re: bingo, simple solution
Also, the existence of PayPal's patent portfolio - along with parent company eBay's portfolio - limits competition in the realm of e-commerce payment handling.
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Re: bingo, simple solution
I'd love it if there was an alternative that was available internationally, not credit-card-dependent, and was as easy for customers to use as PayPal, but I haven't found one yet.
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Children should not be exposed to such smut.
Although, the zombie diety thing is kinda cool.
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I know that Mohammed married Aisha at 9 years of age. I don't know what holy book of Islam that is in (it's not in the Koran), but I'm sure very religious people who cover their women from head to toe would be sad to see that go, which illustrates the problems with this sort of thing.
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Given that Hebrew/Jewish children of the period the book was written were married not much later than 14 and often well before then it's fair to say that book also depicts what we now consider as underage sex. Certainly both partners were beyond the age of puberty which is anything from 10-14, even back then.
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Might consider?
See: Adam and Eve
See: Noah and family post flood.
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Thanks for catching me on that. I hate it when people misattribute.
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Is there some legal recourse when companies as large as Visa force their views on others? Perhaps a lawyer may want to chime in on this one.
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Response to: Pixelation on Mar 5th, 2012 @ 8:37am
House of spirits
100 years of solitude
Just a few great works depicting such things. How do we decide what is erotica?
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Re: Response to: Pixelation on Mar 5th, 2012 @ 8:37am
I've read some truly dreadful titles - some by Smashwords and some not - and while I don't think some of the content is appropriate or tasteful, I also don't see how it us the responsibility of credit card companies to 'protect' us from it. If it's so bad then just open it up to public scrutiny and legislate. Next time I try to pay for fast food with a credit card I don't want it to be rejected because Visa/Amex/MasterCard have decided my health needs protecting!
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Re: Forcing our views...
Sincerely,
Visa
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Re: Re: Forcing our views...
Its nice of you to drop by and join our conversation, although im mystified by the contradition here, WHICH society, do you speak of?
Sincerely,
Rebel Sheep
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Re: Re: Forcing our views...
And you wanna take a good look at THE BIBLE? Rape, incest, murder ... all pretty common themes in that one.
New answer please.
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Re: Forcing our views...
Sincerely,
Visa
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Re: Re: Forcing our views...
Cousin marriage is not illegal in many States, yet it is on the banned list.
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Re: Forcing our views...
Sincerely,
Visa
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Re: Re: Forcing our views...
Are you going to pull all financial support for books which portray murder? Or what about speeding? How many books promote that by depicting it in words? Bank robbery is illegal too. Are we going to ban all books which include bank jobs?
Just askin'
PS: you are repeating yourself.
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Sincerely,
Visa
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BoA
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Re: Re: Forcing our views...
Oh wait...except it's (generally) not. So much for your brilliant theory.
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Paypal has the equal right to NOT process for people who are selling material they are not comfortable with.
Smashwords can keep their content, but they cannot force Paypal to process for them.
End of story. it's that simple.
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I'm basing this off your current comment. I also bet if others banded together with SmashWords, you'd say they were colluding to destroy PayPal and strong arming it into changing it's views.
Don't you get tired of painting the world as simply as you do? Black and white. Right and wrong. Nothing else. No shades or degrees or anything.
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What happened with Godaddy was pure an simple intimidation, right from the Stalinist handbook. It wasn't anything else other than direct intimidation to force a company to change a political stand. It showed a total lack of respect for their rights to express the opinion.
For Smashwords, the law is simple - if Paypal applies restrictions of content evenly for all websites, and does not specifically discriminate against them, there is little that they can do. Paypal can say "either the content goes or we go", and be entirely within their rights.
You understand that Paypal also does not process for completely legal adult porn material. They did for a while, and then got entirely out of that end of the processing business. In a similar manner, American Express also does not process for adult material. With Paypal accepting American Express, they are very likely also tied by American Express's rules regarding this sort of content.
It's not black and white, just sometimes it's pretty freaking easy to see the reasons why. If you ever had a business, if you ever accepted credit cards, if you ever had a merchant account, then you know all that goes into it. It's straight forward and simple, and the card companies, the clearing houses, the IPSP style third party sub-account processors... they all face the same issues regarding what is being sold. It's the real world, amazing as it seems!
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But if a consumer says "If you don't agree with my policy then I'll take my business elsewhere," then it's "direct intimidation."
Good to know which side you're on.
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LOL.
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What happened with Godaddy was pure an simple intimidation, right from the Stalinist handbook. It wasn't anything else other than direct intimidation to force a company to change a political stand. It showed a total lack of respect for their rights to express the opinion."
Sir, let me just say, the one apparently on crack here is yourself. Then again, doubtful. I've met people on crack, none of them thought like you did. They were all more grounded in reality than you appear to be in regards to pretty much everything.
What happened with GoDaddy was in no way intimidation. Glad I had you figured out from the get go. It was both sides exercising their rights. GoDaddy exercised their right to free speech in support of SOPA. The customers exercised their right to take their business to whomever they pleased.
That GoDaddy changed their statements after the fact is NOT them being forced to do so. It is them seeing that their words have consequences, which is something worth pondering before exercising free speech. What you say may offend someone. They might tell you to "f*ck off", punch you, completely agree with you, etc. But at no point, without actual force, can they prevent you from stating whatever they you want. As such, GoDaddy was anything but intimidated.
"For Smashwords, the law is simple - if Paypal applies restrictions of content evenly for all websites, and does not specifically discriminate against them, there is little that they can do. Paypal can say "either the content goes or we go", and be entirely within their rights."
Also, I did not say, that the law wasn't simple for SmashWords. Read what I wrote. I clearly said if SmashWords got others to band together with them in face of what's taking place, you'd be jumping on the "intimidation" bandwagon, as you already are doing. And have done, by your own admission just now.
If however, PayPal does this across the board, that is perfectly within their rights, as they are a private entity. But again, you're talking about something different than what I originally said.
"It's not black and white, just sometimes it's pretty freaking easy to see the reasons why. If you ever had a business, if you ever accepted credit cards, if you ever had a merchant account, then you know all that goes into it. It's straight forward and simple, and the card companies, the clearing houses, the IPSP style third party sub-account processors... they all face the same issues regarding what is being sold. It's the real world, amazing as it seems!"
Also, I wasn't saying that this one specific event was or wasn't entirely black and white. I said that YOU, specifically, focus on the world and all events within it as such. For YOU, things are very much indeed black and white, simple, etc.
Do you have a problem with reading comprehension? Or do you just generally misread people's comments and then respond to things they DID NOT say? I'm thinking it's a little of both, if you'd like, I'm willing to donate some money for you and Darryl to both take some English classes somewhere. But only if you both promise to try extra hard to actually pay attention and learn something.
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Actual child rape and abuse are obviously very wrong, but we're talking about books here.
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Because if this has any at all and that can be shown first amendments would apply else I don't believe what they are doing anything illegal, but I'm not sure about the law, I'm not familiar with all the federal and states laws governing financial institutions and other related laws so at first glance, this seems like individual private entities colluding to displace somebody else from the market, which could be an antitrust issue other than that I can't see anything that could possibly help in this case.
With that said, I believe a better solution is for the market to create new options so when this type of things happen people can just move on and let the colluding people behind, and I want to thank Techdirt for being the beacon of light to put a spot on those issues showing the need for people to do something about it on their own, I shudder to think what government intervention legally or legislatively would be like.
One potential hitch is patents, IP law is becoming a problem for free market and business.
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Re: Pizelation
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Old Hat
[yawn] Old news, very old news actually.
Thanks for the modern update on it though.
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balance of power
...And I wonder how we'll route around it when it's that big.
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Re: balance of power
Paypal cannot exist with out credit cards but credit cards can survive without Paypal. Although I bet if Paypal stood their ground they would find a lot of backing from all corners of the net. There are a lot of sites that rely on Paypal.
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Alternative to US-centric e-commerce financial services disparately needed.
It is really not on that companies (Paypal, VISA, Mastercard, etc) can have a strangle-hold on other companies when the services they provide have become near monopolies.
From an EU perspective, the EU needs to create it's own versions of these companies, subjected to EU law and not extra-EU laws & whims.
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Explain please
Talking about slippery slopes! How long before Techdirt is censored too and oput on trial for, let's say, "corrupting the youth"?
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Re: Explain please
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Re: Explain please
Payment service providers and card companies wants their name and logo to be shown on the e-commerce sites and on all the receipts in order to market their services but they don't want to be associated with all the things their customers uses their services for. ;)
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tear down the censorship wall
OH and congrats to putin on his democratic win in russia.
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Re: tear down the censorship wall
Also, while Putin was leading by such large margins that his win isn't really disputable, there are indications that some fraud still took place (the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported that roughly one third of polls they monitored encountered "ballot stuffing and other irregularities". Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/05/world/europe/russia-election/index.html?hpt=hp_t1).
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Re: Re: tear down the censorship wall
IDK if he is proven to have been cheating, even if he would have won without cheating, he should still not be allowed to win. "Yeah, I committed fraud but I would have won without it," is not really a great argument.
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I'm not defending the practice of vote fraud, by the way; if you are already winning by such wide margins, rigging the election is pointless, and a sign of a thoughtless and wasteful administration.
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at that point it's very existence is a danger to the public good. (not to mention they usually reach that state near the end of their lifetime: ie, when they're about to fail. or are already failing.)
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We'll hear the argument that censorship only happens by the government. So maybe this is technically not censorship. But we've seen how little distinction there is between big corporate interests and the government. We've also seen how a government-supported monopoly supports a lot of these big corporations (like the patents held by PayPal). So one way or another, this is very much like censorship, if not actually censorship.
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Re: Incest Is Legal (except in works of fiction sold via PayPal)
First cousins allegedly may marry in:
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona (but not if they intend to procreate)
California
Colorado
Connecticut
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
and the list goes on.
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Adult bookstores, porn websites, etc. all accept credit cards.
If banks really were pressuring card processors to drop adult content businesses, wouldn't these be the first to be cut off?
Since when did banks start policing what its customers purchase?
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While the whole thing is horrible, there is still some leeway.
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What I discovered was that most merchant-services (i.e. companies that allow you to use Visa and MasterCard on their site) which allow adult products charge a $5000 up-front fee to use their service. Then, they take exorbitant percentages from each transaction. Some 5%, some 14%, some as high as 25%.
Now it was starting to make more sense. The credit card companies charge higher fees for these “high-risk” accounts because there is a higher rate of what they call “chargebacks.” You know that protection on your credit card, where if you dispute the charge, you don’t have to pay for it? Well they’ve determined that happens more with porn and gambling and other “high-risk” sites than others, so they’re justified in charging more money to process payment for those sites.
Paypal doesn’t want to have to pay Visa and MC for carrying “high risk” accounts on their books. You have to remember that Paypal is a middleman. Sites that carry high-risk material have to pay the high-risk costs of doing business. If you’re going through Paypal, you don’t have to pay that. Until Paypal catches you. And then they insist you take down your high-risk content or lose your account.
The post also discusses the types of material being censored further. While this appears to be somewhat fluid (see linked Smashwords posts), some publishers have gone beyond banning titles that feature descriptions of illegal acts (rape, paedophilia, incest) and have banned books including themes of "pseudo-incest", "barely legal" (their terms) and BDSM.
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This story seems to be missing something
I really don't see what business it is of theirs but also why they would bother to put this kind of pressure on Paypal. Is there anything about some other groups putting pressure on the card companies?
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Re: This story seems to be missing something
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Re: This story seems to be missing something
The problem is that PayPal is big enough, not hungry enough, to reject entire categories of content, not because of morality, but because it's a hassle for them. What's needed is a globally accepted, pre-paid card NOT tied to any one CC service.
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What speech?
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Monopoly?
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Bitcoins
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Are we not protected by Laws on Freedom of the Press or Arts ?
If so I would sue Paypal for the maximum amount possible to send them a message they will understand
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this has to stem from one person, so who is it? has that person got the balls to stand up and admit who it is or will they, like with the entertainment industries, just keep loading the gun, letting someone else pull the trigger and perhaps got shot? if that's the case, i call that person a gutless bastard who should stop forcing their will on to everyone else. if you dont like the erotica stuff, keep away from it but leave other people to make up their own minds on things!
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Hmmm
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Now, on to financial fraud
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WHAT GIVES THEM THE RIGHT???
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Re: WHAT GIVES THEM THE RIGHT???
Sure you can, but what can you - successfully at that - sue them for? The U.S. Constitution guarantees that the government won't necessarily censor one's right to free speech and all, but does it impose the same standard on, say, a private citizen towards another private citizen?
Believe it or not, folks, but you too have that same right to censor anyone who uses your stuff, just as PayPal can only censor those who use THEIR stuff. Goodness, we censor what web sites our kids can visit using the Internet WE'RE paying for, we censor potential customers who swear at us within OUR store's premises, we censor what our friends can do when invited into OUR homes, etc.
It may feel like PayPal's censoring one's ability to buy or read whatever erotica they want. Go ahead and try buying or reading one from, say, an offline bookstore or another online store and see if PayPal can stop you from doing that still.
It does suck when someone else is in a stronger position than you, and you can't seemingly have your way with them. While it does feel good to express moral outrage against somebody you don't agree with, are you sure you want someone to censor YOUR ability to censor anybody you find disagreeable?
The door swings both ways. Probably whether something is good or not depends which side one happens to be on.
If anything, though, PayPal ought to have at least released a statement explaining why, albeit they'll still get flagged by many people for it anyway. Heh.
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Re: WHAT GIVES THEM THE RIGHT???
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Dark Days
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Re: Dark Days
http://zoewhitten.com/2012/03/03/bye-smashwords/
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Re: Re: Dark Days
Instead of progressing, we've begun moving backwards.
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Or at least one other vendor has extricated itself from paypal and opened its doors to the books that have been banned. Sure they had to work out a workaround with the credit card companies but they've done it.
http://noboundariespress.com/2012/02/25/a-note-from-kaleigha-what-to-do-with-your-removed-boo ks/
Which of course is great business sense - they've cornered a sudden gap in the market and gained a lot of good will.
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Well there goes Romeo and Juliet... My high school english teacher should be fired for distributing such intolerable smut.
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So what, it's still fiction.
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Affects vs Effects
The verb you are looking for is AFFECTS.
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Emotional response
Actions like this are not based on 'money' but on emotion, someone's emotional response to the content provided. This is where ALL censorship comes from. The risk assessment of porn is not the issue - porn is big business and has been for decades. It isn't going anywhere. Someone was shocked pornographic/erotic material could be found on a 'mainstream' site and the morality gang found a cause.
Notice how this is happening an awful lot lately, across all sorts of varied social groups: the attack on Planned Parenthood via a now former higher up at Susan Komen, the outrageous attacks from the right on the inclusion of gays into marriage laws, the semi-organized actions of the religious Right to counter the language and action of scientists and even atheists, their calls of discrimination now that they are being challenged in the rule-making industry, Limbaugh calling people names, it speaks of a larger desperation out there, a need for control that, yes, evokes Atwood, but also smells of total failure. A great beast is on its side, heaving its last.
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Muder is illegal
You can argue otherwise, but then you are going against everyone who ever died protecting the inalienable rights enumerated by the Constitution. While you are at it you can go take a piss on the graves of the founding fathers.
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Duckduckgo search: Paypal Alternatives
Dwolla charges 25 cents for any transaction $10 or above that, which is less than PayPal $0.030 + 1.9–2.9%.
BitCoin
Wikipedia: Alternative online payment service providers
Wikipedia: Micropayments
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Paypal
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PayPal Petition on Change.org
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Re: PayPal Petition on Change.org
An arguably good thing is no one's necessarily bound to one another, especially if/when options DO exist.
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PreyPal
A tale of two clunky, unprofessional and utterly unscrupulous commercial entities: eBay and PayPal
http://bit.ly/wpl5DT
eBay / PayPal / Donahoe: Dead Men Walking
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Free of Paypal
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Re: Free of Paypal
- sex with 18-19 year olds
- sex with totally imaginary creatures such as werewolves
- sex between people not actually related by blood
So we are talking about banning things that someone doesn't like, but is NOT illegal, or in the case of shape-shifters, not even possible.
Are we going back to banning Fanny Hill again?
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Re: Re: Free of Paypal
One additional point though. From speaking to various authors, the only fiction being affected at this time is GLBT oriented...
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Watch out Amazon...
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Smell a rat
Something just doesn't add up here -- it's not about illegal activity or they'd be insisting Smashwords remove ALL crime dramas, regardless of sexual content, or all love stories, regardless of the ages of the characters, or all... you get the picture.
Methinks the poster reporting on the premiums demanded by CC companies dealing directly with sellers has it right. CC companies have no problem processing fees for strip clubs, pornography, etc., but if an end user complains the charges are false, somebody has to eat them.
Is the real reason behind this "threat" -- that PayPal is trying to pass along this premium to Smashwords? Or is it the CC companies doing this directly? Personally, I'd like Smashwords to come clean on this.
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CC company double standards
Fictional erotica in text form VS porn made with actual people... #LogicFail
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The few ruling the many.
The it is a sad state of things when the Few are allowed to rule the Many. When a large and influential company is allowed to dictate how another company and it's customers think, act and live, this country and the freedoms we are guaranteed get tossed out the window.
This is the Moral Majority all over again and remember how embarrassingly idiotic they turned out to be? Especially with their name. They were only a majority in their minds.
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What is bestiality?
Let's take an example of the old Beauty and the Beast series on TV (The 80's one with Vincent, the lion guy) now He and his Lady friend, Catherine, never had sex in the series, however if they did, would it be bestiality?
There could be themes where a woman is in love with a centaur, and have an affair... or it could be a dragon or something.
Should this be banned, in case, you know, people start raping dragons?
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At the time they were just as hardball about it while blaming someone else.
There's already been one court case confirming that written works of fiction depicting otherwise illegal sex is not illegal.
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Smashwords points
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Smashwords points
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Re: Smashwords points
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PayPal censorship
Does PayPal read the material that is purchased? Think about it. How could they? If they have the time to inspect all purchases to see if they approve of the content, they need to get a life and spend it providing better service. Any transaction I have had them insert themselves into has been a hassle but the credit card always accepted the charge and never questioned or chastised me about what was purchased. Credit card companies want the money. Period. PayPal is making this up.
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Re: PayPal censorship
I find it particularly ironic - if it's true - that the same companies that "rape" consumers every month and "raped" the American public for billions of dollars to bail their asses out are worried about what adults are reading. Perhaps that is why the entire economy went to hell in a hand basket. Maybe they should have been more concerned about inflated mortgages and bad credit risks and paying themselves huge bonuses. Talk about obscene!
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One of two sacred rights
What Paypal is asking amounts to censorship. That is simply not acceptable.
My solution to Smashwords, let us find another way of paying royalties, e.g. direct deposit to bank accounts. This is what other royalty services do. This way you do to things: You get rid of Paypal, and will never again be blackmailed.
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PayPal Censorship
Moreover, PayPal is a world-wide utility. The definition of offensiveness varies from culture to culture. If PayPal's owners operated from Islamabad, would web site owners - whipped to obedience by the culture of Islam - have to visit Mecca before they qualified for a merchant account?
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Why Smashwords?
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Re: Why Smashwords?
AllRomance has changed their guildlines as to what is acceptable to be published. They claim the new guidelines only affect .002 percent of the books they carry so "very few are really being effected".
On a positive note, No Boundries Press, has kicked PayPal to the curb and is currently offering a home to all books orphaned by this situation.
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Proof?
Sounds like Paypal blowing smoke after being caught in *another* PR scandal.
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Censorship is a Government Imposed limitation
Come on people--that's how freedom works. Please stop complaining about it or you'll encourage the government to step in and say Everybody has to do business with Everybody whether they like or not. That is NOT freedom.
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Re: Censorship is a Government Imposed limitation
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Re: Re: Censorship is a Government Imposed limitation
Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, MEDIA OUTLET, or OTHER CONTROLLING BODY.(caps mine)
Merriam-Webster:
Censor - transitive verb
: to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable ; also: to suppress or delete as objectionable
I.E. the radio stationed censored her speech before broadcasting it.
My point: not ONLY governments censor.
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Paypal Censorship
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Censorship
Dump Paypal!
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this is not censorship
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Morality mess
People can read anything they please into a work of literature. For instance, the '50s cartoon Mighty Mouse was taken off the air because someone decided the magic dust represented cocaine. Are you kidding me? I didn't even know what cocaine was at that age. It was a freakin' cartoon show!
But the same holds true for literature ... hunt for "evil" and you will surely find it. The question is, why are financial institutions trying to control our rights? And why isn't this affecting places like Amazon or Barnes & Noble, who also utilize credit cards and banks ... why is it just the independent publishers and Indie authors?
Since we aren't hearing that the major retailers are facing this same ordeal, could this just be a move on PayPal's part alone?
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The keyword is, again, neutrality
They cut off payments to Wikileaks - not because of any legal finding, but because Joe Lieberman made a phone call. Credit card companies have been cutting off payments to what they consider 'unacceptable' erotica providers for years now - nothing illegal, but if Visa and Mastercard won't do business with you, you're just as dead as an internet business as if Google won't list you.
We've had financial firms making decisions about what you can or can't buy for years now, and frankly I was beginning to think they'd have to start explicitly rigging elections with this before people sat up and took notice - I was trying to get the ACLU involved in a similar case two years ago with no response.
So I'm delighted this is finally getting attention
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And as one of the comments said rightly: the Bible too is full of sex and cruelty - so: no more selling of it?
Romeo and Juliette? No chance. Sex in there as well.
This goes for a LOT of classics and to say, where it is still tasteful and where it is "erotica" is a question of personal opinion. To be safe, Smashwords and other sellers would have to remove every possible contender!
So: only childrens books allowed for sale in the future?!
This is stupid. As long, as something like this exists, credit card companies will always be able to decide what kind of texts are allowed, and which are not - like they were some kind of dictator!
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It's corporate America, but good grief.
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Smashwords to Censor Authors?
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Why is anyone surprised?
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censorship by papal
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Lassen-uns-nicht-erpressen-Rossmann-schmeisst-Paypal -raus-1340041.html
Heise is editing a mayor Computer journal.
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I Smell A Rat
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