PayPal Reverses Course on Erotic Titles
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Banning an entire class of e-books because they have material some people may not be comfortable with is never a great idea. When it comes to erotica, PayPal is changing course. The new policy will prohibit use of PayPal for sale of e-books that contain child pornography and violent material. The new policy does not target books that have text only. As Anuj Nayar, director of communications for PayPal, explained, PayPal will stop targeting classes of e-books and will focus on individual titles.
First and foremost, we are going to focus this policy only on e-books that contain potentially illegal images, not e-books that are limited to just text. The policy will prohibit use of PayPal for the sale of e-books that contain child pornography, or e-books with text and obscene images of rape, bestiality or incest (as defined by the U.S. legal standard for obscenity: material that appeals to the prurient interest, depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value).
PayPal is aiming to work with publishers with offending books on their websites or keep them from using the service if they their content do not comply with these new policies. This is a great move by PayPal as nobody likes to see censorship for mildly offensive material. It protects the rights of authors and e-book buyers as Mark Coker, the CEO of Smashwords, explained:
This is a big, bold move by PayPal. It represents a watershed decision that protects the rights of writers to write, publish and distribute legal fiction. It also protects the rights of readers to purchase and enjoy all fiction in the privacy of their own imagination. … Will Google Checkout and Checkout by Amazon be next now that the credit card companies have clarified their positions, and have essentially given payment providers the permission to adopt more enlightened policies?
Will other payment services follow PayPal’s approach? The new policy is certainly more than reasonable if applied the right way.
