![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
As you probably know, I'm originally publishing some titles in addition to my traditionally published work (under another pen name) and my fanworks. My Stragetic Affair series can be found at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords.
I also publish at two romance-centric websites--Bookstrand and All Romance Ebooks.
Last week, Bookstrand released a letter saying that Paypal had frozen their account, on judgment calls on the books they sold and had an objection to, among other things, rape, incest, child sex, bestiality, and pseudo incest.If Bookstrand didn't remove these, Paypal would permanently revoke their vendor account.
Now, most of these things are quite illegal. If I'm getting it on with one of my cats, I can be arrested in all 50 states, not to mention most of the countries in the world. Incest? Child sex? Rape? Yep, all illegal.
Now, what about pseudo incest. What is it? Well, it involves stories where the hero and heroine have a family link, be it adopted child, stepfamily, distant cousins, in-laws, etc. The problem is, this is perfectly *legal* everywhere!
If I wanted to have a relationship with my stepdad, that might be morally squicky, but legally? Nope, there's no law against it. If I wanted to become literal kissing cousins with one of mine? Again, not illegal. In fact, some states allow cousins to marry. Legally. So yeah, in some states cousins have more rights than same/sex couples.
So, Bookstrand issued this edict and told people they either had to remove titles with any objectionable content or their accounts would be closed down. These are publishers here trying to make a living, authors writing FICTIONAL stories.
Tonight, All Romance Ebooks issued the same edict, banning the same sorts of books. But instead of allowing authors and publishers to remove their books, they moved books to an inactive list. There is no exact science to this and one of my books was targeted--Sparking the Fire. STF is a book with two adult heroes, never met, unrelated, who are not animals in any form, who have VERY consensual relations. Yet someone marked it off sale, and though I've marked it to be put back ON sale, who knows what will happen.
This entire situation is downright frightening. A third-party vendor (Paypal) is trying to make moral judgments toward what you and I read and write. Today it is the perfectly legal pseudo incest. Tomorrow will it be BDSM? Read this link and tell me BDSM titles are safe.
How about male/male Daddy!Kink? Will they try to tell us we can't read or write that? How can a third-party vendor have so much control? And where does the censorship stop?
If you're buying my books at Bookstrand or ARE, I encourage you to consider picking them up at Smashwords instead. Smashwords has multiple unlocked formats (PDF, RTF, HTML, etc) and thus far hasn't slapped censorship on authors or readers.
I also publish at two romance-centric websites--Bookstrand and All Romance Ebooks.
Last week, Bookstrand released a letter saying that Paypal had frozen their account, on judgment calls on the books they sold and had an objection to, among other things, rape, incest, child sex, bestiality, and pseudo incest.If Bookstrand didn't remove these, Paypal would permanently revoke their vendor account.
Now, most of these things are quite illegal. If I'm getting it on with one of my cats, I can be arrested in all 50 states, not to mention most of the countries in the world. Incest? Child sex? Rape? Yep, all illegal.
Now, what about pseudo incest. What is it? Well, it involves stories where the hero and heroine have a family link, be it adopted child, stepfamily, distant cousins, in-laws, etc. The problem is, this is perfectly *legal* everywhere!
If I wanted to have a relationship with my stepdad, that might be morally squicky, but legally? Nope, there's no law against it. If I wanted to become literal kissing cousins with one of mine? Again, not illegal. In fact, some states allow cousins to marry. Legally. So yeah, in some states cousins have more rights than same/sex couples.
So, Bookstrand issued this edict and told people they either had to remove titles with any objectionable content or their accounts would be closed down. These are publishers here trying to make a living, authors writing FICTIONAL stories.
Tonight, All Romance Ebooks issued the same edict, banning the same sorts of books. But instead of allowing authors and publishers to remove their books, they moved books to an inactive list. There is no exact science to this and one of my books was targeted--Sparking the Fire. STF is a book with two adult heroes, never met, unrelated, who are not animals in any form, who have VERY consensual relations. Yet someone marked it off sale, and though I've marked it to be put back ON sale, who knows what will happen.
This entire situation is downright frightening. A third-party vendor (Paypal) is trying to make moral judgments toward what you and I read and write. Today it is the perfectly legal pseudo incest. Tomorrow will it be BDSM? Read this link and tell me BDSM titles are safe.
How about male/male Daddy!Kink? Will they try to tell us we can't read or write that? How can a third-party vendor have so much control? And where does the censorship stop?
If you're buying my books at Bookstrand or ARE, I encourage you to consider picking them up at Smashwords instead. Smashwords has multiple unlocked formats (PDF, RTF, HTML, etc) and thus far hasn't slapped censorship on authors or readers.
From:
no subject
You hear right, people. They think BDSM should be considered RAPE.
This is two consenting adults engaging in consensual acts, where a contract is usually negotiated and signed, where sex may or may not even occur. This is two people who respect each other and mutually agreed to certain consensual acts IN THEIR BEDROOM. And PayPal considers it rape.
If this is not censorship I really don't know what is. It's frightening to think that we are no longer allowed to publish something that is legal and isn't even remotely morally objectionable if you look at what is going on with the world right now.
The worst part is that it may only be a matter of time before Smashwords also cave under pressure from PayPal.
What is to stop them from deciding one day that they have moral objections with gay and lesbian relationships and that books with explicit sex between two unrelated, consenting adults of the same sex should be banned?
This type of corporate-enforced censorship should not be allowed. We fight so hard to stop SOPA and PIPA, and yet a mere company is trying to do the same. Don't let them.
From:
no subject
And how the hell can BDSM be classified as rape... *sigh* Ignorance on subjects is not a good thing when people base it off of how they *think* something is because it's not something they are comfortable with.
And even with rape, there is the fact that rape can be used to jump start the entire story and/or evolve the story even if it's not the main aspect of the story (Law & Order SVU anyone?).
It's one of those, once you start, where does it stop when it comes to starting the censorship and it shouldn't be started in the first place.
From:
no subject