[116784] in Cypherpunks
Cowards at Amazon.com
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eric Cordian)
Fri Aug 20 17:34:53 1999
From: Eric Cordian <emc@wire.insync.net>
Message-Id: <199908202054.PAA01689@wire.insync.net>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 15:54:11 -0500 (CDT)
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Reply-To: Eric Cordian <emc@wire.insync.net>
Bleeting Feminazi book-burners have had a field day in recent years,
having gotten child porn laws extended, thanks to Hatch and FeinSwine, to
the point where they even criminalize erotic artistic depictions involving
no minors at all. Canada criminalizes written works depicting the
sexuality of minors, including well-known literature.
Then there's the Knox case, which fabricated from whole cloth the notion
of fully-clothed child porn, and the Amateur Action case, in which a BBS
owner was dragged from California to Tennessee, for the purpose of
prosecuting porn which was legal in California, and then dragged to Utah,
so he could be prosecuted over minors in nudist material, which is legal
almost everywhere except Utah and Ohio.
Not content after demolishing explicitly sexual material, the child sex
hysterics then set their sights on world-renowned photographers whose work
included child nudes. People like Jacques Sturges, and Sally Mann. They
convinced prosecutors in Bible-Belt states to indict national bookstore
chains for "child porn", hoping to pressure them into removing volumes
they did not approve of from their shelves.
Well, now it appears Amazon.com, the Net's largest bookseller, has decided
to leap on the bandwagon of political correctness, as defined these days
by people like Dr. Laura, and Rosie O'Donnell, and further appease the
anti-child sex crusaders.
Under pressure from a bunch of letter-writing moms on a soap opera chat
board, Amazon.com has decided to drop a site called "BL Library" from its
associates program.
http://www.fpc.net/pages/blibrary
What does BL Library contain, you may ask? Is it filled with links to
boylove promotional material, and books full of lurid descriptions of
adult/child sex?
Well, not exactly. BL Library contains the words "BL Library" and links
to a very small number of BL-related scholarly and fictional works whose
theme involves friendships, including sexually expressed ones, between men
and boys. These books are mainstream, and available in bookstores. You'd
probably recognize their names. "For a Lost Solder", "Man Without a
Face", and others.
Amazon professes to be "outraged" that these perfectly legal books, which
they sell, and which hundreds of people buy each day, have been grouped
toegther in one place under the banner "BL Library." After all, what
corporation could survive possibly being cricitized by Dr. Laura should
they fail to capitulate on the child sex issue. After the APA and the
Rind Report, no one wants to be next in the barrel.
A weasel at Amazon.com has written the following letter to one of the
complainers, professing his profuse apologies at having offended public
sensibilities, and assuring her that all traces of anything
boylove-related will quickly be removed from any association with Amazon.
What's next, burning Plato?
Needless to say, I will never buy another book from Amazon. Neither will
a lot of other people.
The letter follows.
-----
"Thank you very much for taking the time to bring the problem with
"BLibrary" to our attention. Amazon.com certainly cares with whom we
associate, and with hundreds of thousands of Web sites participating in
our Associates Program you can imagine how hard it is to continually
monitor the content on every one. We received several complaints this week
regarding "BLibrary", and after re-visiting their Web site we found them
in clear violation of our standards.
It's important to emphasize that while Amazon.com does not endorse the
views or opinions expressed by our Associates, we do hold them to certain
clear standards. Our operating agreement clearly prohibits Web sites that:
Promote sexually explicit materials Promote violence Promote
discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability,
sexual orientation, or age Promote illegal activities Violate intellectual
property rights
We were surprised and outraged to discover that the web site found at
http://www.fpc.net contains such material, and we have terminated our
Association with "BLibrary" effective immediately. We have contacted them
and insisted that they remove all logos and links associated with
Amazon.com at once.
Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention, and giving us the
opportunity to resolve this issue. Content of this type is utterly
inappropriate for any Amazon.com Associate, and we most definitely share
your concerns.
Sincerely,
Marco H. Sawrey Amazon.com Associates Program
http://www.amazon.com/associates
--
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"
