Amazon is selling an e-book entitled "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure"

This incident has really riled up free speech and anti-censorship advocates. The problem is that the gov’t isn’t pulling the book- a private enterprise is responding to its customers. It’s also possible that someone in charge has a conscience as well.

I just wonder what the ALA is going to do about putting something like that in libraries.

Edited to add: I read an update on http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/11/amazon-pulls-pedophile-guide-amid-… Fox News this morning that was interesting-

This isn’t the first time Amazon has sold material that promotes illegal activity. It is currently accepting pre-orders for the hardcover version of “I Am the Market: How to Smuggle Cocaine by the Ton, in Five Easy Lessons” by Luca Rastello.

Nor is it the first time Amazon has come under attack for selling objectionable content in its store. In 2002, the United States Justice Foundation, a conservative group, threatened to sue Amazon for selling “Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers.” That title is still available through Amazon.

In 2009, Amazon stopped selling “RapeLay,” a first-person video game in which the protagonist stalks and then rapes a mother and her daughters, after it was widely condemned in the media and by various interest groups.

[Jim Peet] With regard to this quote in the Fox article

This isn’t the first time Amazon has sold material that promotes illegal activity.

I suspect that Amazon is somewhat like a buyer and seller market place for many items. Just because it is sold on Amazon doesn’t mean that a purchasing team is making decisions to stock it in their warehouses.

I may be wrong, but I hypothesize that there is something automatic about some items being sold

Amazon does serve as a market for independent sellers, so I don’t know if or how they control what those ‘storefronts’ offer.

It may be only a marginal difference in some cases, but there is a difference between materials that contain descriptions of illegal behavior and those that encourage illegal behavior.

Does anyone want to place any wagers on how long a book that gives instructions on how to rape women might last on Amazon? How about a book that has photographs of aborted children? Maybe a book that is a collection of anti-Muslim cartoons?

It’s not a matter that they “won’t censor” — it’s a matter of what hits the politically correct level to require censorship for them.

Though they have pulled the book for now, there is no promise that it is pulled permanently, but rather that it is being “reviewed”. Until then, I’m holding off on all purchases from Amazon. (And I’m an avid Kindle user and Amazon’s the only place I can buy books for it.) It’s the only way to make a protest to which they might listen. Interestingly, before it was pulled, it moved to a Top 100 Seller which says something about our nation, in my opinion.

But even sadder than the fact that Amazon would dare offer a book that educates predators on how to engage in pedophilic relationships is the apathy that eventually emerges as what is required for us to be “shocked” or “offended” deadens our outrage. In another decade, these kind of books will not be a big deal, I predict. Gay marriage will be commonplace and the debate will then be over things like plural marriages (we are already being prepared for this issue with shows like “Sister Wives”) and debates over the “age of consent”. Because we have adopted the mantra “Who am I/are you to say….” as our standard for right and wrong, everything is now simply a matter of opinion and perspective. Anything else is judgmental and intolerant.

In no way am I defending this book. But as I understand it, this was not something Amazon.com had stocked in their warehouse. It was a book submitted by the author in the Kindle marketplace.

With that being said, as the recent owner of a Kindle myself, I regularly check places like http://booksontheknob.blogspot.com/ to see what is available from Amazon for free books. There are often some good ones to get, including the entire http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-HCSB-Digital-ebook/dp/B0045U9UES/ref=s…] HCSB and http://www.amazon.com/Bible-English-Standard-Version-ebook/dp/B001EOCFU…] ESV , a nice http://www.amazon.com/John-Calvin-Devotion-Doctrine-ebook/dp/B00200LH1E…] book of essays on Calvin (alas, no longer free), and other good choices. However, there are usually some real doozies, too- nothing illegal, but certainly much that is immoral- including frequent offerings of overt erotica, both hetero-and homo- sexual. A relatively tame example of what I am talking about- http://booksontheknob.blogspot.com/2010/11/bargain-book-roundup-holiday…- includes “Christian fiction” as well as more “passionate” titles. I have seen worse offered than these.

What I am wondering is this- what would be the reasoning of someone who would boycott over the headline issue in discussion, yet would feel quite comfortable frequenting the electronic establishment otherwise? I remember as a teenager back in the 1980s being encouraged to avoid 7-11 because they sold Playboy. We seem well beyond that now, especially when ordering from these online merchants.

How objectionable must things be to warrant this kind of action?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/11/pedophile-guide-author-confident-t… ‘Pedophile Guide’ Author Confident E-Book Will Be Back on Amazon
… Meanwhile, consumers searching for other pedophilia-related titles will not suffer from a shortage of material, a quick search reveals.

Titles like “Diary of a Pedophile,” “Father Pedophile,” “The ‘Pedophile’ Sham: Undermining the Torah Matrix” and “Fun With Pedophiles, The Best of Baiting” were readily available on Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com as of early Thursday, less than a day after Amazon apparently removed Greaves’ title.

“The ‘Pedophile’ Sham: Undermining the Torah Matrix,” was offered for sale on Amazon in paperback and hardcover versions, and on BarnesandNoble.com in paperback…

On Wednesday, Amazon initially stood by its decision to sell the e-book. But later in the day, the link to the e-book was no longer functioning.

“Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable,” the company said in a statement to TechCrunch.com. “Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.”

[Dan Burrell] Does anyone want to place any wagers on how long a book that gives instructions on how to rape women might last on Amazon? How about a book that has photographs of aborted children? Maybe a book that is a collection of anti-Muslim cartoons?

http://www.amazon.com/Cartoons-That-Shook-World/dp/0300124724/ref=sr_1_…] The Cartoons that Shook The World is supposed to be a thorough, definitive, scholarly treatment of the whole Muslim cartoon controversy, but Yale University Press removed the actual cartoons from the text so that no one would be offended. But Amazon also offers http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-22Banned-22-Images-Gary-Hull/dp/06153242…] Muhammad: The Banned Images , which includes the cartoons.

I would, however, doubt that one can find a “How To” book for sexual violence against women. If there is a such a book, I would like to see the author interviewed on The View. Turnabout is fair play.