NZheral.co.nz
8:38 AM Friday Nov 12, 2010
(Left: The cover of the controversial book.)
WASHINGTON – Amazon, after a deluge of criticism and boycott threats, withdrew a digital book called The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure from sale on Thursday, US time, but offered no explanation for the move.
The self-published book for Amazon’s Kindle by a Phillip R. Greaves was no longer available in the Seattle-based retail giant’s online store and the hundreds of comments from outraged customers had also been removed.
A search for the book on Amazon.com returned a listing of the title for the controversial book but no purchase price, and when clicked on it responded that it was no longer a functioning web page.
In a statement distributed to TechCrunch and other technology blogs on Wednesday, Amazon defended the sale of the book, whose full title is The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct.
“Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable,” it said.
“Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions,” the company said.
There was no immediate response from Amazon to a request for comment on Thursday.
The web page offering the book was swamped with hundreds of comments from visitors and customers, many of whom threatened to boycott Amazon until it withdrew the book from sale.
“This is a joke, right? What reputable business would even consider allowing this book to be sold from their website?” said a visitor identified as ‘Emerald Storm’. “This is absolutely despicable.”
“Shame on Amazon for allowing such garbage to be sold on its site,” said another with the handle “thirty something.”
“Amazon, you might want to consider taking this horrid book off your website if you want to have any business this holiday season,” wrote “ecirtap.”
“Shame on you, Amazon, for allowing a book like this to be uploaded for purchase! This book gives advice to people about something that is ILLEGAL in every state in this nation. It needs to be removed from the site immediately,” wrote another customer.
In a product description to sell the book, the author framed it as an attempt “to make paedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certain rules for these adults to follow.
“I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter (sic) sentences should they ever be caught,” Greaves said.
– AFP
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Amazon pulls paedophile manual from sale
abc.net.au
11 November 2010
Posted 11 minutes ago
Online retail giant Amazon has pulled an electronic book about paedophilia from its online store after complaints from online shoppers.
The book, The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct, by Philip R. Greaves II, went on sale on October 28.
Amazon initially defended the book’s publication in a statement, saying it “believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable”.
“Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions,” it said.
But Amazon later withdrew the book from its online store after a campaign against it spread on Twitter, Facebook and other media.
Commenting online, some people had said they planned to boycott the online store in protest.
The book title appeared on the company’s website yesterday but a subsequent message read: “We’re sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site”.
There was no immediate comment from Amazon.
– Reuters
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‘Pedophile Guide’ Author Confident E-Book Will Be Back on Amazon
FoxNews.com
Published November 11, 2010
By Joshua Rhett Miller
“The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure” is currently not available on Amazon following calls for a boycott of the online retail giant, but the man who wrote the e-book is confident that it will be back.
Meanwhile, pedophiles who are upset that they can’t buy Phillip Greaves’ e-book will have no trouble finding and purchasing other books that advocate sexual relations with children, an online search reveals.
Greaves, a 47-year-old retired nurse’s aide in Pueblo, Colo., said Thursday that nearly 300 copies of his self-published e-book were sold on Amazon.com’s Kindle Store in the past day, prior to its disappearance from the site. He said he also received more than 3,000 complaints about the $4.79 e-book, which seeks to make “pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them,” according to the product description that was posted while the book was available for sale.
Greaves, in an interview with FoxNews.com on Thursday, said he does not promote pedophilia, but that it “is something that I have sympathy for because of my own childhood.”
He said he was exposed to sex when he was 7 years old. “I was not molested, but I was exposed to sex at an early age … Sometimes those relationships are positive. No, I do not advocate pedophilia. I just feel that I understand it.”
He said he was “very impressed” that Amazon initially stood by its decision to sell the title, and he is now waiting for it to be reviewed by the online retailer.
“They’re re-reviewing it,” said Greaves. (Amazon did not reply to numerous requests for comment on whether it has discontinued selling the e-book and whether it is reviewing its content.)
Greaves added that in the wake of a spike in sales and the controversy surrounding his e-book, he now wants to try his luck at penning a full-length novel. “It may include some [pedophilia-related material], but it’s not going to be the primary focus,” he said.
Meanwhile, consumers searching for other pedophilia-related titles will not suffer from a shortage of material, a quick search reveals.
Titles like “Diary of a Pedophile,” “Father Pedophile,” “The ‘Pedophile’ Sham: Undermining the Torah Matrix” and “Fun With Pedophiles, The Best of Baiting” were readily available on Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com as of early Thursday, less than a day after Amazon apparently removed Greaves’ title.
“The ‘Pedophile’ Sham: Undermining the Torah Matrix,” was offered for sale on Amazon in paperback and hardcover versions, and on BarnesandNoble.com in paperback.
Its product description reads: “In The ‘Pedophile’ Sham, author Arthur S. Joseph dares to defy the common notions and beliefs regarding pedophilia. With convincing authority and no punches pulled, Joseph explains why every normal being should proudly be a pedophile — yes, proudly. Along with the Torah and kabalistic insights, The ‘Pedophile’ Sham is the only source of enlightenment that establishes new definitions for the entire family.”
Joseph, of Los Angeles, recently retired from a successful career as a dentist and served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, according to the Amazon.com listing. Attempts to reach Joseph and the publisher of the book, AuthorHouse, were not successful.
At BarnesandNoble.com, consumers can purchase titles like “Fun With Pedophiles, The Best of Baiting” by Doug Stanhope for as little as $10.65. The 104-page paperback was published in late 2006 by Shake the Baby Press, according to the listing.
At Borders.com, shoppers can purchase T.J. Davis’ “Diary of a Pedophile” for $14.95. The 2003 paperback is currently on back order, according to the listing, but buyers can expect delivery within eight weeks.
Calls to Borders, Amazon and Barnes & Noble seeking comment were not immediately returned on Thursday.
Kelly Saindon, a Chicago-based family law attorney and former prosecutor, told Fox News she found it problematic that Amazon.com had offered “offensive” titles like “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure.”
“I know they’re sitting on their First Amendment rights, saying they have a right to do so, but your First Amendment rights end when they infringe upon mine,” she said. “And what about the rights of the children that pedophiles attack? Who’s looking out for them?”
On Wednesday, Amazon initially stood by its decision to sell the e-book. But later in the day, the link to the e-book was no longer functioning.
“Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable,” the company said in a statement to TechCrunch.com. “Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.”
Row over Amazon sales of paedophile advice guide
bbc.co.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11731928
11 November 2010 Last updated at 05:54 ET
A self-published guide giving advice to paedophiles that was on sale through online retailer Amazon is stirring up controversy, with some threatening to boycott the website.
The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct has now been removed from sale.
But Amazon had defended the listing, saying it did not promote criminal acts but also avoided censorship.
Amazon allows authors to submit their own books and shares revenue with them.
Before authors are able to sell a work on the site, they are asked to read a set of guidelines, which bans offensive materials.
But Amazon does not specifically state on its website what material it deems offensive, instead saying “probably what you would expect”.
Boycott threat
In recent hours the book listing appears to have been removed from the Amazon website. But there has been no response yet to BBC requests for a statement from the retailer.
It had previously adopted a defiant posture, saying in a statement: “Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable.
“Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.”
The author, listed as Philip R Greaves II, argues that paedophiles are misunderstood and purports to offer advice to help them abide by the law.
Individuals on the micro-blogging website Twitter have asked Amazon to remove the book from its site, while some are threatening to boycott the retailer. One Amazon user posted a comment on the site, saying that “to see a book like this on Amazon’s ‘shelves’, so to speak, is very troubling to me”.
The title is being sold for the Kindle electronic reader.
Read and weep!
Tolerance of paedophilia/child sex abuse is becoming mainstream. Over the years many, myself included, have warned that were heading in this direction.
The very fact that this filth advocating and/or condoning the sexual abuse of children as a desireable and healthy lifestyle and/or, as many are now wont to say, ‘sexual orientation,’ is freely available speaks volumes.
I have never ordered from Amazon. Rest assured I never will,
Based on my own experience as a child I very strongly disagree with the assertion that tolerance of child sex abuse and pedophiles is becoming mainstream. I will say without equivocation and without any doubt whatsoever that the collective movement is in the opposite direction toward stronger aversion than ever. It may appear as though society is becoming more tolerant of pedophiles but I believe this illusion comes from the fact that in the past mainstream society was no more tolerant of victims than they were of their abusers. What mainstream society is becoming more tolerant now of is the cry of victims and it is painful to listen to but at least now victims are BEGINNING to feel safe enough to talk because of this new awakening within themselves that they are beginning to feel somewhat tolerated. It is so often over and over repeated ,” the courage that it takes for victims to come forward.” It should not require courage to cry out because I have been wounded. That only happens in a world who says to me that they have not the courage to listen to me because they may have to live some of my pain. I hate hearing that victims should “courageously” come forward. It very unjustly places an added burden on someone who does not deserve it all and may very well be not capable of doing so. Those who call for such courage would do much better to muster the courage of their own to stand firmly and openly against those who wish to hold victims down morally to a level equal to or lower than the pedophiles who crushed their little being. Call for courage in yourselves , never mind others. We can see in our own lives around us and even here on this one site very often how far we have yet to go in our society before we can consider ourselves to be “tolerant” of the sound of this anguish and much farther from a just and compassionate attitude of acceptance , respect and love.