December 17, 2003. ש Amazon.Com's Promotion of Child Molesting.

Clayton Cramer explains how he dropped his association with Amazon.Com on account of a particularly nasty book that company unapologetically sells called Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers . Here are comments by the author and a reader from the Amazon website:

I have been principal moderator on an Internet site devoted to examining these issues for two years, and was active on another similar site for a year before that. It became obvious very early on that the men - and a few boys - who participate in these sites are not the stereotypical monsters that the media portrays. They are sincere, concerned, loving human beings who simply have - and were probably born with - a sexual orientation that is neither understood nor accepted by most others.

...

This book, while certainly bound to be controversial, and which espouses certain changes in various laws, is carefully maintained within the limits of current laws, there is nothing in it which could possibly concern any postal inspector, or which could create any legal liability.

...

As a pedophile myself I found this book to be enlightening in my quest to truly come to terms with my own sexuality... Although it doesn't glorify child molestation it does attempt to shed the positive aspects of a healthy boy/male relationship... For anyone trying to understand this phenomenon that is fairly commonplace in society this brave book argues the point as well as any other

This is an interesting case, because Amazon is selling a vile book, but one which does not seem to be pornography (which Amazon also sells). Rather, it is vile because of its content: because it argues that immoral behavior is not immoral and that existing laws should be changed. I would not ban a book of this kind (though I would ban the pornography), but I frown upon any bookstore that sells it. And so I agree with Mr. Cramer, and will shut down my Amazon affiliate connection. I haven't actually ever collected any money from them, and don't even know how much they owe me (presumably very little), but I liked having the links up so people could easily buy books and movies I recommended. I did a little research, though, and find that I can switch, which I've done tonight. Using Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers as test book, I find that Amazon and Borders are both helping the cause of child molesting (they seem to be teamed up somehow). Powell's Barnes and Noble, All-Direct, and Alibris are cleaner. It looks to me as if Powell's has the best affiliate program, and it may even be that they don't sell pornography, so I'm switching to them. They don't sell movies, though, so I'll use Barnes and Noble for movies. Barnes and Noble doesn't allow instant setup, though, so it may be a few days before I have that affiliate program working. [ permalink, http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.12.17c.htm . Comments: Erasmusen@yahoo.com. ]

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