Andi Marquette

PayPal polices erotica content of ebooks

Thanks to GCLS for Tweeting this today, as I might not have caught it otherwise.

PayPal is cracking down on what it calls “obscene content” with regard to ebooks. Violet Blue has the scoop over at ZDNet.

From that article:

On Saturday February 18, PayPal began threatening indie book publishers and distributors with immediate deactivation of the businesses’ accounts if they did not remove books containing certain sexual themes – namely, specific sexual fantasies that PayPal does not approve of.

PayPal told indie e-book publishers and retailers – such as AllRomance, Smashwords, Excessica and Bookstrand – that if they didn’t remove the offending literature from their catalogs within a few days of notification, PayPal would close their accounts.

What is PayPal targeting? Violet Blue says

PayPal told the booksellers they may not sell works of fiction that include sexual fantasies containing themes and implied scenarios of: pseudo-incest (including “daddy” fantasies, step-family), incest, fantasies about non-consensual sex or rape, bestiality (widened to include non-human fantasy creatures), and BDSM.

Read the full piece over at ZDNet for more info about why Paypal might be doing this. In terms of indie bookselling, this could have a huge impact. Bookstrand has already jettisoned all indie titles from its fold, and Smashwords is warning all its authors about the new restrictions.

It’s a worrisome policy. Although I myself don’t want to read books that fit into some of the erotica categories that PayPal outlines above, I certainly don’t think censorship is the answer. I just don’t purchase those books. And what does this mean for same-sex adult erotica? Will PayPal decide, as Amazon seemed to do in its “adult content” book deranking of 2009, that LGBT books are “obscene”?

Kinda scary, methinks.

3 comments

  1. . . . as far as I can make out, the pertinent bit in PayPals ‘User Agreement’, is in Section 9.1 a, where there’s a link to their ‘Acceptable Use Policy’. Under the ‘prohibited activities’, we come to item 2: ‘f’, and ‘h’ (and this is a straight copy-n-paste – don’t’cha love it when this sort of information is so easy to find!)

    “elate to transactions involving (a) narcotics, steroids, certain controlled substances or other products that present a risk to consumer safety, (b) drug paraphernalia, (c) items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity, (d) stolen goods including digital and virtual goods, (e) items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance, or the financial exploitation of a crime, (f) items that are considered obscene, (g) items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity or privacy or any other proprietary right under the laws of any jurisdiction, (h) certain sexually oriented materials or services, (i) ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories, or (j), certain weapons or knives regulated under applicable law.”

    . . . interestingly enough the ‘items that are considered obscene’ are not spelled out, which presumes that someone at Paypal who started this whole mess has decided what is obscene and what isn’t. Neither are the ‘certain sexually oriented materials or services’ defined. Presumably, the same someone (or someones) has decided what sales of sexual oriented materials and services are OK for PayPal to take their cut from, and what are not.

    . . . I wonder a couple of things, because it seems like they’re targeting (at the moment) self-published authors . . . Why? . . . Why now? . . . And who stands to gain from this?

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