It seems as if, like Alice, we’ve all slipped down the rabbit hole into a world that is less Wonderland and more WTF-land. In the year 2012, politicians are on TV actually discussing the legalities of birth control, even as banks are telling legal adults what we can and can’t sell and buy for our own personal use. It’s surreal. It’s frightening. It’s angering (if that is even a word).
It’s a slippery slope I don’t want to go down. So what can we do? Mark Coker, the owner of Smashwords, explains the situation better than I can in his email to indie publishers, which I have pasted below. He outlines steps we can all take to make sure we don’t go down that rabbit hole and find ourselves in a place we don’t want to be….
PAYPAL CENSORSHIP UPDATE ________________________________________ In case you haven't heard, about two weeks ago, PayPal contacted Smashwords and gave us a surprise ultimatum: Remove all titles containing bestiality, rape or incest, otherwise they threatened to deactivate our PayPal account. We engaged them in discussions and on Monday they gave us a temporary reprieve as we continue to work in good faith to find a suitable solution. PayPal tells us that their crackdown is necessary so that they can remain in compliance with the requirements of the banks and credit card associations (likely Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, though they didn't mention them by name). Last Friday, I sent the following email to our erotica authors and publishers: https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/27 Then on Monday, I issued an update, and announced we would delay enforcement of PayPal's guidelines so we and PayPal could continue our discussions: https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/28 THE PROBLEM: PayPal is asking us to censor legal fiction. Regardless of how one views topics of rape, bestiality and incest, these topics are pervasive in mainstream fiction. We believe this crackdown is really targeting erotica writers. This is unfair, and it marks a slippery slope. We don't want credit card companies or financial institutions telling our authors what they can write and what readers can read. Fiction is fantasy. It's not real. It's legal. THE SOLUTION: There's no easy solution. Legally, PayPal and the credit card companies probably have the right to decide how their services are used. Unfortunately, since they're the moneyrunners, they control the oxygen that feeds digital commerce. Many Smashwords authors have suggested we find a different payment processor. That's not a good long term solution, because if credit card companies are behind this, they'll eventually force crackdowns elsewhere. PayPal works well for us. In addition to running all credit card processing at the Smashwords.com store, PayPal is how we pay all our authors outside the U.S. My conversations with PayPal are ongoing and have been productive, yet I have no illusion that the road ahead will be simple, or that the outcome will be favorable. BUILDING A COALITION OF SUPPORT: Independent advocacy groups are considering taking on the PayPal censorship case. I'm supporting the development of this loose-knit coalition of like-minded groups who believe that censorship of legal fiction should not be allowed. We will grow the coalition. Each group will have its own voice and tactics I'm working with them because we share a common cause to protect books from censorship. Earlier today I had conversations with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). I briefed them on the Smashwords/PayPal situation, explained the adverse affect this crackdown will have on some of our authors and customers, and shared my intention to continue working with PayPal in a positive manner to move the discussion forward. The EFF blogged about the issue a few days ago: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/legal-censorship-paypal-makes-habit-deciding-what-users-can-read Today, ABFFE and NCAC issued a press release: http://www.scribd.com/doc/83549049/NCAC-ABFFE-Letter-To-PayPal-eBay-re-Ebook-Refusal-2012 I will not be on the streets with torch in hand calling for PayPal's head, but I will encourage interested parties to get involved and speak their piece. This is where you come in... HOW YOU CAN HELP: Although erotica authors are being targeted, this is an issue that should concern all indie authors. It affects indies disproportionately because indies are the ones pushing the boundaries of fiction. Indies are the ones out there publishing without the (fading) protective patina of a "traditional publisher" to lend them legitimacy. We indies only have each other. Several Smashwords authors have contacted me to stress that this censorship affects women disproportionately. Women write a lot of the erotica, and they're also the primary consumers of erotica. They're also the primary consumers of mainstream romance, which could also come under threat if PayPal and the credit card companies were to overly enforce their too-broad and too-nebulous obsenity clauses (I think this is unlikely, but at the same time, why would dubious consent be okay in mainstream romance but not okay in erotica? If your write paranormal, can your were-creatures not get it on with one another, or is that bestiality? The insanity needs to stop here. These are not questions an author, publisher or distributor of legal fiction should have to answer.). All writers and their readers should stand up and voice their opposition to financial services companies censoring books. Authors should have the freedom to publish legal fiction, and readers should have the freedom to read what they want. These corporations need to hear from you. Pick up the phone and call them. Email them. Start petitions. Sign petitions. Blog your opposition to censorship. Encourage your readers to do the same. Pass the word among your social networks. Contact your favorite bloggers and encourage them to follow this story. Contact your local newspaper and offer to let them interview you so they can hear a local author's perspective on this story of international significance. If you have connections to mainstream media, encourage them to pick up on the story. Encourage them to call the credit card companies and pose this simple question, "PayPal says they're trying to enforce the policies of credit card companies. Why are you censoring legal fiction?" Below are links to the companies waiting to hear from you. Click the link and you'll find their phone numbers, executive names and postal mailing addresses. Be polite, respectful and professional, and encourage your friends and followers to do the same. Let them know you want them out of the business of censoring legal fiction. Tell the credit card companies you want them to give PayPal permission to sell your ebooks without censorship or discrimination. Let them know that PayPal's policies are out of step with the major online ebook retailers who already accept your books as they are. Address your calls, emails (if you can find the email) and paper letters (yes paper!) to the executives. Post open letters to them on your blog, then tweet and Facebook hyperlinks to your letters. Force the credit card companies to join the discussion about censorship. And yes, express your feelings and opinions to PayPal as well. Don't scream at them. Ask them to work on your behalf to protect you and your readers from censorship. Tell them how their proposed censorship will harm you and your fellow writers. Visa: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=V+Profile American Express: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=AXP+Profile MasterCard: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=MA+Profile Discover: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=DFS+Profile Ebay (owns PayPal): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=ebay+Profile _________ Starting Sunday, if our email systems can handle it, we will send out an email to several hundred thousand registered Smashwords members who are opted in to receive occasional Smashwords service updates. The email will combine Read an Ebook Week with the censorship call to action. Let's start a little fire, shall we? Thank you for your continuing support of Smashwords. With your help, we can move mountains. Best wishes, Mark Mark Coker Founder Smashwords http://smashwords.com blog: http://blog.smashwords.com twitter: http://twitter.com/markcoker
2 thoughts on “Down the Rabbit Hole: Avoiding the Slippery Slope”
wow. I´m scary too – yesterday I was reading about the congress hearings about birth control and all I could think was that at some point, United States were actually a reference for freedom and liberty for the rest of the world. We use to look up to your country, and now… Even here, in Brazil, the world´s biggest catholic country, where gay marriage is far from being a reality, something like that would never happen. But again, if the credit card companies are really behind this, it will all come knocking on our doors sooner than later. This is definitely an international matter, not only because affects writers and readers from all around the world (and without online shopping, how we are suppose to buy these books??), but because it shows a scary side of globalization – internet should only increase and make it easier to burn down frontiers. it definitely should´t be a weapon for censorship – and that´s what´s happening. I will make sure to use all the links and write to everyone I manage to. Hopefully the good guys can still win sometimes. 😉
Yes, I am sharing on Facebook and with all my friends verbally etc. But am I being paranoid OR are all these “censorship” stopping birth control etc etc all aimed at women? Intelligent, reasonably affluent, controlling their own lives and bodies women who would be back under the control of who? Men! Surely not! And I am a happily married middle-aged women not a leftwing burning the bra type…..
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