Amazon has finally disgusted me

For the past few years I have been an avid shopper at Amazon.com, until this year, I have been very slowly saving for an item that I want that is expensive, but today my thoughts on Amazon has changed drastically, and how they practice their business.

They hide behind saying censorship isn't their responsibility, its the responsibility and judgment of the customer to buy or not buy certain things.

What I'm talking about is the 'self published' Author, Phillip R. Greaves 2nd. That's what he goes by on Amazon, I'm not sure if that is his real name or a pen name, but his latest book has sparked an outcry from last count by CNN 2,000 Amazon users, myself one, that they would boycott the site until the book was taken down. The book's title?

The Pedeophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure.

Great Kindle reading don't you think?
Most of us think not.
While the majority of the outcry, came from parents and people who saw the book for what it was, the censorship ended with the publishing of the book. Amazon AND the author saw fit to delete comments at their will on message boards, as well as reviews. I had comments on the message board that disappeared. And I was very within the limit of Amazon's TOS on this. I didn't read any of the book, but the story has gone viral, people are canceling Amazon accounts left and right. Refusing to buy until the book is taken down. Now the book disappeared once, and then a very short time later was back up and for sale again. You can search the title and find the listing but if you click on it, it will go to a 404 page error not found on Amazon's site message.

First of all I did not read any of the e-book, but I saw several bloggers who read the free section, and while the interview CNN did said that he didn't promote intercourse with kids, but thought kissing and fondling was ok, he wrote the book to help kids who found themselves in that situation.

Right? WRONG.

The author was commenting to remarks on the message board and then deleting them, but people who saw him, saw him promoting a book about pedeophile. The book description and publishing description said that the e-book was a guide to show a humane side to pedeophiles so that if they got caught they would get a lighter sentence.

Further more on blogs, I read that he described how to make condoms for young boys. Tell me that is promoting a book for kids who find themselves in a situation? It's not, it was teaching others how to be a 'kinder' sex offender.

Amazon is clear in its Terms of Service about promoting illegal activities. This went beyond free speech and crossed into promoting illegal activity. But Amazon hid behind 'Censorship, and the author's right to free speech and freedom of the press'. I'm pretty sure that some of our founding fathers were rolling over in their graves at this one. Pretty Disgusting.

Ok, so here's even a worse case scenario. Amazon listed the book solely to make money, even knowing it was wrong to list. Which is just as bad. Their TOS says that they can pull a book at any time if they feel it violates their terms of service and with-hold any and all money due the author. So 'if', note the if', this is what Amazon did, this disgusts me just as much as what the author wrote.

Someone brought up the subject of instructional guides of how to commit suicide. Or what's the difference between what the author wrote and porn?

First of all its not illegal to commit suicide. Doctors are required by their oath to try to save you, but its not illegal to try to or to commit suicide. Simple as that.

Porn? Porn is legal, what this book was promoting was not.

There are people who said that we were over reacting, but never have I seen something go so viral so fast. People contacting the FBI about the author, contacting news outlets. Amazon knew they had to do something.

And for some scary reason, I have a feeling this isn't the last we've heard of this e-book. Fortunately there is no hardcover book to be destroyed, all shipping was done via whispernet, if it wasn't something promoting something illegal it could have been delivered regular email.

I truly hope the FBI subpoenas Amazon for records of each and every person that bought the book. When I first saw the e-book it was ranked in the 12,000 numbers. Within 2 hours of that it had jumped about 5,000 spots, by the 11pm news? The book was in the top 100 paid orders of Amazon Kindle e-books.

Of course there were those who said it was a sting to catch predators, but I truly don't believe that. This was a huge oversight by Amazon, and now they have no choice but to protect their interests. ESPECIALLY with the Christmas season just around the corner.

Me? I'll be waiting to see if the book makes a return.
Copyright ©2010 Mari Muccioli