Amazon is selling a book for pedophiles
 

The book is called The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure, and can be found here.

Does this get a pass because it's considered free speech??

That's just going WAY too far!

I'm a librarian in training, so I'm all about free speech but this is promoting something illegal (as well as disgusting and immoral).

It appears to be self-published. I'm not sure that this actually counts as illegal material. It's one of those 'downsides to free speech' things that can't really be resolved without placing limits on speech we'd like to protect.

I didn't say the book was "illegal material." It promotes crimes.

The thing is that Amazon is not the Government. They can choose not to sell a product and sadly they've decided that profits win out.

Without being able to read any sample pages of the book, it's pretty hard to evaluate it. The title is repugnant, but saying "it promotes crimes" is impossible just from a title.

I didn't say you said anything? Who said you said anything?

Books that promote crimes, a tricky definition to begin with, also are obviously protected.

Nile can decide not to sell a product, but without a statement from them I can't judge what their consideration is on the matter. It was published on 10/28/10 from what I can tell and I'm willing to give them longer than 2 weeks or so to address it. I don't know that I agree with your 'sadly.' I very much fall into the "defending to the death your right to say it" category and even though Nile is a private entity I'm wary of even so-called good censorship.

ETA: Name of the website changed because I hate when links are added to my post without my permission. No John, will not help you make money by people clicking on the site's name in my post. Nuh uh.

"Product Description
This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certian rules for these adults to follow. I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter sentences should they ever be caught."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist.

That's a product description. It's not the actual product.

Amazon Pedophilia Guide Gets 101,000-Percent Sales Boost
 

Story literally broke this morning.

From the author
Source

And from TechCrunch, the company's response.
So no, it really wasn't about the money. People didn't start buying the book until they caused a ruckus.

Of course it's about the money. Do you really think that they didn't know it would cause a ruckus?

That is probably not the most offensive self-published ebook they sell. It's just the one that has pedophile in it's name.

Sometimes being ethically consistent means standing up for things you really don't want to stand up for. Honestly if they cave, which they probably will, I'll have less respect for them.

Oh please. If Amazon didn't think they could make money off the book, they never would have listed it. It's the American way.

They do self-publishing. It costs them practically nothing and the author pays a fee. It's not as if Nile chose to publish or list it in particular. It's probably entirely automated at this point.

And by listing it for a fee from the author, they are making money off the book.

Right, but they list every book 'for the money.' Their actions with this book are not, at present, any different from any other book. So claiming that this book in particular was listed for the sake of making money and causing a ruckus is disingenuous.

Ha! They took it down.

They'd need some sort of probable cause. Companies generally don't like giving that information out. /based on much L&O
And, as predicted, I have lost respect for them.

Two werdz...Patriot Act.


They don't need PC for something like this. If the FBI wanted a list of everyone who downloaded/bought this book they'd have it by tomorrow morning. The tracking of sales of certain products( bomb/meth making, child porn) is common in today's world. It's also easier for law enforcement to get a list of everyone who visited greekchat within the last 24 hours as opposed to getting a list of every site Drolefille visited in the last 24 hours.

I'll defer to an actual lawyer but not to you ;) Where's MC when you need it. Secure servers probably require access from the company and companies don't like giving out customer information as a rule because it makes people less likely to buy from them.
Wow, bored tonight or did frodo forget to take his sock off.

Those are customer images, frodo, added by customers. I don't think Amazzon is "taunting" anyone.

have they taken it down already?

You have no problem answering her question based on something you saw on a TV show but when I chime in you spew this. LOL.


"lil miss, lil miss, lil miss can't be wrong.."

Are the people who bought this book well protected from LE from finding out they bought it? Short answer, NO they really aren't.

BUT...
What they can and cannot do with the information gathered or if they can use it in the courts is the question to be answered by a lawyer.

And yes, companies aren't exactly pleased with the patriot act, hence the numerous lawsuits filed against it by not only civil rights groups but also private companies.

A) Sarcasm and B) what exactly are you basing your opinion on since you're not a lawyer either?

I don't think I've told this story on GC before, but here goes:

A member of Alpha Phi Alpha who disagreed with the content of my first novel and my website abused his position at the school to block my website from any computer on the Howard University server.

I know this to be true because one of his subordinates told me and because some of my subordinates (at the time) were Howard students who couldn't access the site.

Censorship sucks. So does pedophilia. But if I have to protect a pedophile's work in order to protect mine, then I will just have to.

I'm fine with Ama/on selling the book. There's a ton of random shit on Ama/on, from anal beads to ridiculously overpriced engagement rings (see D&R Random thread). As a major bookseller, they SHOULD be standing up for the right to publish or sell whatever the hell books people want to write (content-wise). I'm a little pissed they took it down.

That said, I'm totally not fine with the blatant disregard the author seems to display toward proper grammar and spelling rules. He should be drawn and quartered.

This.
That sucks that that happened to you Sen.
This too.

This reminds me a lot of the controversy surrounding a book called "The Turner Diaries." Totally different crime, but similar questions surrounding the boundaries of free speech. It's basically a "how-to" guidebook for a violent uprising of white supremacists that has actually been cited in criminal cases involving... you guessed it: violent crimes committed by white supremacists.

It's my understanding that "The Turner Diaries" is a fictional novel that has been used as inspiration and/or propaganda piece for white supremacists and people with anti-government sentiments (I've never read it but it's been brought up in some of my classes). It's not a "how-to" guidebook in the sense that the pedophile book is.

In the immortal words of Col. Potter from M*A*S*H, "Both useful items, but hardly interchangeable."

baHAHahahahaAHa!

Apparently the author said on CNN "pedophiles love children and would never hurt them". Have child protection checked this guy out? He sounds dangerous to me...

Pretty classic pedophile attitude. NAMBLA would be proud. But just as people are public members of NAMBLA, it's not illegal to be a pedophile, just to act on it.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/12/20/...ex.html?hpt=T2

Wow. That should be a nice constitutional case.

Has there not been a case that's dealt with obscenity and internet retailers these days? Obscenity varies based on the standards of the locale or something IIRC.

Seriously, where did they find this kid? Really?

He's definitely not the only one when it comes to GLOs and college students. He's just the most vocal one at the wrong times.