That’s terrible. It’s making a value judgment for its customers, and it has financial repercussions for authors and publishers. I hope they are quickly pressured to reconsider. I sent an email complaining about this, and linked back to the article. I asked them to stop branding LGBT work with a Scarlet A(dult).

What does any of this have to do with mobile computing? I don’t really care about your personal sexual orientation, I subscribed to this blog because I found helpful info about mobile computing. If RANTS like this one are going to be the norm, I will disconnect!
PLEASE RESTRAIN YOURSELF and stay on topic!

Ray, You arre right that this is not strictly mobile. But I think it is tangentially relevant enough not to be from out in left field. Amazon does supply ebooks for the Kindle and iphone. Plus it was an important issue for us to cover.

We welcome your opinion whether you agree or disagree. But I do not think it was unreasonable for us to cover this.

doug

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to agree with Ray on this one.

While I completely agree with the fact this is complete garbage and Amazon should not have taken this stance, or should have at least explained the action – I don’t feel (even with eBooks and the Kindle) that this is relevant to this space.

There’s some topics that just aren’t in line with the site and the sort of thing we cover – this, religion and a few others I can think of are just a bit too far off topic. I’m not one to pass judgement on anyone’s sexual preference, I no issue with the discussion, but I just don’t think it relevant to JAMM.

Sorry.

Actually, this situation may not be what it seems:

http://community.livejournal.com/brutal_honesty/3168992.html

It warns about 18+ when you go to the link (not sure why) but the site is SFW.

Good find Marc!

Alright – so now Heather, go there, grab all the code in that thread … and target all the religious nut job books out there. Then it’ll be all over CNN and the interwebs again. Maybe Amazon will issue a formal statement and fix the issue.

Just make sure you do it from your laptop… that way you can tell us all about it and it will be mobile related.

Well, I think you should know who you are buying your merchandise from, and I know I have bought portable electronics from Amazon. Plus, the Kindle is a huge portable device.

I do have an update for the story. Will be up soon.

Kati42 – thanks for speaking out.

Boy, I hate when I find myself in a position where I have to defend an act that I don’t necessarily support, but I find this rant to be both misplaced and inaccurate.

Amazon is not the public library, although the library engages in censorship every day in deciding which material to make available to THEIR customers.

Amazon, as a business, has every right to decide which products they sell, promote, or advertise. You describe that as censorship, but it’s not. They are not preventing you from reading such material, they are limiting the search results that you see when YOU go to THEIR website and search on certain terms. The simple solution would be for you to not go to their website….

You, as a consumer of those products, have every right to choose whether to do business with them.

I was in a 7-11 store yesterday, and they also did not have the books that you describe for sale – though they did have other books and magazines. I find the same thing at Home Depot, and Fry’s.

The point there is that I am not privy to the decisions which drive the products available for sale at any of these businesses – I can only observe the results of those decisions and make purchase decisions based on the results of those observations.

If you happen to be the sort of single-issue consumer who will terminate your business relationship with Amazon – not because they won’t sell you the item you want, but because they filtered some of the titles out of a search result, fine. Don’t do business with them. Let them know why and then stick to your guns.

For myself, when I buy from Amazon it’s because they have a product that I need at a price I find acceptable. If I am looking for something that doesn’t turn up in a search, I shop elsewhere.

I would wager a significant amount of money that Amazon employs people whose entire job is to monitor the results returned by customer searches. Further, if a significant number of searches were for the titles you describe, and those searchers were leaving the site without making a purchase, I think you would find a pretty rapid re-evaluation of the business logic that drove the initial decision.

Finally, before we get all happy with the labels, and start calling me a homophobe, or misogynist, or racist, or whatever, consider this:

I am not for gay marriage. I am also not against gay marriage. I am not for or against gays in the military, affirmative action, or the deportation of illegal immigrants.

What I AM against is discrimination. Different rules based on arbitrary distinctions are wrong. Unfortunately, most people only seem to get upset about it when it is their particular ox being gored.

I am SO glad Heather posted this. I would not have known otherwise, and it definitely affects how I make my purchasing decisions. Frankly, discrimination is an abomination, and it should not be tolerated. And why is it that some readers think they have the right to decide what should and should not be posted? Shouldn’t JAMM have the right to decide what they think is important?

Allen: I don’t see Heather calling for the government to shut Amazon down, though I would argue against Amazon’s right to discriminate against gay literature just as I would argue against their right to discriminate against African American literature.

Anyway, I see her getting the word out, with justified anger, so that those of us who care can act as we see fit. And I don’t think it’s fair to see this as single issue. I would be equally angry with sexist or racist discrimination. But anyway, isn’t it natural that those who are affected will be the first ones to speak up (except when they’re afraid)?

Lastly, I’m sorry to hear that you don’t take a stand on the key issues that you mention. Maybe that’s because YOU don’t care enough if it’s not your issue? Anyway, the point is this: there are systemic biases, not just “distinctions,” that cause real harm to real people, and justice demands that we speak against them.

Ray: first off, Heather didn’t describe her sexual orientation; by reading this, I certainly have no idea what it is, and frankly it’s none of my business (although if someone wanted to raise their own orientation to explain why this hurt her/him, I could only applaud that for bravery). She just raised an objection to discrimination. Maybe you assume that anyone who isn’t gay wouldn’t object? You would be very, very wrong.

And frankly, a knee-jerk response of “I don’t really care about your personal sexual orientation” usually means “I don’t like your sexual orientation and would rather that you hide it from me” and makes me suspect you of homophobia (would you have objected if she mentioned her husband?). I certainly in NO way represent JAMM, but for me, if that’s your attitude, good riddance to you.