[Infowarrior] - Fwd: Amazon gets into the book-banning business

[Richard Forno]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk at gsp.org>
> Date: December 15, 2010 2:56:22 PM EST
> To: Richard Forno <rforno at infowarrior.org>, Dave Farber <dave at farber.net>
> Subject: Amazon gets into the book-banning business
> 
> ( And, I think, makes a compelling argument why nobody should ever buy
> a Kindle or any content for it. )
> 
> (h/t to Slashdot)
> 
> 	Amazon in the Book Banning Business
> 	http://theselfpublishingrevolution.blogspot.com/2010/12/amazon-in-book-banning-business.html
> 
> Excerpt:
> 
> 	On December 9, 2010, I was contacted by CreateSpace (Amazon's
> 	Print on Demand service) who publishes my print books. They
> 	informed me that my title, Back to the Garden, had been
> 	removed for violating their "content guidelines." When
> 	I consulted their guidelines I found them so vague as to
> 	be useless--were they saying my content was illegal? Public
> 	domain? Stolen? Offensive? (All of these were on the list). When
> 	I inquired as to the specifics of the violation, they were not
> 	forthcoming, and sent a form letter response stating that Amazon
> 	"may, in its sole discretion, at any time, refuse to list or
> 	distribute any content that it deems inappropriate."
> 
> 	[...]
> 
> 	When some of my readers began checking their Kindle archives for
> 	books of mine they'd purchased on Amazon, they found them missing
> 	from their archives. When one reader called to get a refund for
> 	the book she no longer had access to, she was chastised by the
> 	Amazon customer service representative about the "severity"
> 	of the book she'd chosen to purchase.
> 
> ---rsk
>