to find this 'publication' utterly repellent?

[Glitterknickaz]

Amazon is 'offering' this for sale.

In essence it is an attempt to normalise paedophilia.

I find it utterly repellent, but Amazon have defended stocking it on the basis that not to do so would amount to censorship and to "support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions".

I'm seriously considering closing my Amazon account tbh.

Oh, it's gone? Great! I just started a thread about it.

Vile.

It's still available on the US site.

Actually, there isn't a good reason for banning this particular chunk of semiliterate drivel other than 'Bawwww! It's Offensive!'. (And that's never a good enough reason in itself). It consists of written words, so you can't use the argument that people were coereced to pose for pictures. It's not going to turn every ordinary mild-mannered individual who so much as reads the title into a dangerous predator.
And it might even be moderately useful research material for those who work in law enforcement and child protection.

(Oh, and the mere existence of this generated controversy has allowed the hard of thinking to exercise their outrage glands and give themselves a nice warm glow while not actually having to do anyhting much).

I went to the link just there now and it's gone.

Prob a good thing.

No idea what it is, but from reading these posts I don't think I want to see it.

absolutely vile. Doesn't look like it was being sold in UK shop & it's now down on the .com site.

Obviously not read the book but would assume content rather vile.

BUT I prefer that books like this are available and people can choose to ignore them, than someone (I mean who? Who could possibly have the authority to make a decision on acceptability?) decides that the book is "inappropriate" and can therefore not be made available.

Where would you draw the line?

Yay! Mob rule!

But SGB and nancydrew - asking a commercial business not to distribute something is absolutely NOT the same as banning a book or disallowing free speech.

Whoever runs amazon gets to make the policies on what they allow the sale of; why shouldn't they have a policy on not allowing the sale of books that promote harm of minors? They're a business not a government.

MarenmjMakesBigPies:

Have you not heard of NAMBLA?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Man/Boy_Love_Association

Bollocks I am a member of NAMBLA

but my group is
National Assosiation of Marlin Brando Look Alikes

I will have to quit.I do not want people to get the wrong idea

This has just been on the news, Amazon have pulled it after thousands of complaints. They showed an interview with the author and he said that if the child hasnt been physically harmed by a paeodophile then the offender should just get a fine and that a lot of the time the child enjoys it!

Anastasia: censorship by a mob of idiots is still censorship. It's not a crime to write a book or to have and express in writing horrible opinions. I wish Amazon had stood firm, because there are plenty of fuckwits out there all too ready to whip up a mob of likeminded brain donors to pressurize Amazon into (for instance) delisting all their gay/lesbian titles because some people are offended by homosexuality - and now this ridiculous farce over one crappy little pamphlet is going to stir them all up.

You can hardly compare homosexuality to paedophilia. While one can be a paedophile without ever resorting to harming the children, this guy, it seems, wrote a guide about how to get away with it. Big difference.

And isn't it a crime, for instance, to sell a book inciting to killing racial minorities or gays, for example? Perhaps this book here doesn't fall foul of any laws, but it is vile and it's only natural that most people will react with disgust.

I mean, if my local bookstore were selling titles like 'How to beat your wife' and "How to rape women without getting caught' I would boycott them. Same here.

Actually, Mein Kampf is still sold, isn't it?

But if I wrote something similar now and sold it, wouldn't it be incitement to racial hatred etc? Does anyone know?

No, paedophilia (attraction to children) is not- only when you act on it.

Thoughts are not illegal. Abusing other people is illegal.
WB: Yes, Mein Kampf is in fact available on Amazon. And if, say, Nick Griffin were to write his autobiography, he should be able to sell it on Amazon if he wished.
ANd I am not equating paedophilia with homosexuality in the least, one is a preference which cannot legally be acted on, the other is (at least in civilised countries) perfectly legal and a good thing too.

See.... I object to other tomes, with subjects like how to make a homemade bomb.

It's not just peedo emergency type things I object to...

I think terrorism is also illegal iygwim.

You can buy The Anarchists Cookbook (long banned but the ban was lifted a fe years back) on Amazon as well.
Knowing how to commit a crime doesn't mean you're going to commit it. I have known how to make a bomb since I was about 14 but I've never made one.

SGB, Amazon DID in fact have their entire catalog of GLBT titles de-listed in April of 2009.

They claim it was a technical glitch in their catalog system. There are also groups taking credit for doing exactly as people have done here - mass reporting and complaints, to get ALL gay-interest titles removed as offensive material.

Yes, I think his view are abhorrent, but I don't think the amazon/kindle platform as it is currently constructed allows them to take his book down. From his other titles it is VERY clear that he is picking shit-hot topics, writing barely literate rants on them, and hoping the public will bite. And this time they did. He's got to be pissing himself with glee at the amount of attention he's gotten.

Oh, and yes, I have heard of NAMBLA. Clearly so have you. Because it's and unfortunate effect of free speech for all that everyone gets to have it.

looks like its been taken off

But freedom of speech works both ways SGB: if people want to be free to publish things they need to accept that other people are a. Free to point out exactly why what they have published is crap and b. To tell businesses that they will take their business elsewhere if they continue to sell it and to attempt to provide a pursuasive argument as to why the business should listen.

I'm not advocating a legal ban on any books, but using consumer pressure to encourage businesses to behave ethically is not censorship IMO: though I did choose not to sign the petition calling for a change to the law as a totally different thing.