Incest! Or, Amazon reminds us that it's only a retailer

I never really expected to write about the topic of incest on Booksprung, but thanks to Amazon now I shall. Yesterday, the news broke that Amazon removed several incest-themed erotica novels from the Kindle store. The reason? According to the author, Selena Kitt, Amazon told her that it “may, in its sole discretion, at any time, refuse to list or distribute any content that it deems inappropriate.”

So that’s that; Amazon doesn’t want (some) incest-themed erotica on the store, apparently. [Update: In the comments below, one of the affected authors points out that only some top-selling titles were removed, and that there are still hundreds of clearly tagged incest titles for sale.] But the incident has raised some questions on other blogs about Amazon and its role as self-appointed guardian of your Total Book Experience, which I’ll look at below.

So is Amazon deleting books again?

Not really. The George Orwell debacle from two summers ago was a legal matter; the publisher involved was selling Orwell books in a region where it didn’t hold the copyright, and Amazon was concerned it could be held legally responsible. Amazon screwed up its “recall” by remotely deleting copies of the book from customers’ Kindles (it refunded the money), which served as a useful reminder to everyone that when you cede control of your property–in this case your actual Kindle hardware–to a third party, you risk abuse.

Amazon apologized and said it would never do that again. And so far, it’s kept its word. In the case of the incest erotica, Amazon pulled the titles from the store but did not touch any copies already purchased and downloaded.

However, the retailer did disable future downloading of the titles for customers who had already bought them, which some bloggers rightly pointed out was pretty underhanded. Amazon later said that this was a technical error and that it’s been fixed.

Bottom line: Amazon is still holding to its promise that it won’t touch your past Kindle purchases (so long as they don’t pose a malware or legal threat). Still, you should remember that this isn’t a legally binding promise, just a customer service strategy.

(Technically, Amazon’s license agreement with you promises it won’t delete books, but the company reserves the right to change that agreement at any time, so it’s more or less unenforceable.)

Did Amazon pull these titles because they’re illegal?

Not as far as I can tell. To my knowledge, while various definitions of incest are illegal in different parts of the U.S., incest fiction–at least if the characters are all over 18 years of age–is legal. Check out Esmeralda’s comment below for a more informed take on fiction and the law.

As critics keep pointing out, rape, murder, and embezzlement are all crimes too, and yet Amazon sells Kindle titles that describe those activities, sometimes in explicit detail. Is it important that the incest titles are specifically designed to bring about sexual arousal? If so, is that the criteria Amazon is using? The retailer won’t say.

I suspect the real reason Amazon yanked the incest erotica is due to the drubbing Amazon received last month over that ridiculous pedophilic book.

Whether it’s rational or not, the incest taboo is linked to disgust in a way that those universal crimes listed above are not–just look at the way a New York newspaper reported a consensual-adult incest story last week. (In case you don’t click through, the reporter used the phrases “sick sex relationship” and “twisted text messages.” Also worth noting: although both partners were adults, the father may face up to four years in prison if found guilty. This is in New York.)

Unfortunately for authors of incest erotica, the topic is sometimes conflated with pedophilia. This may be a case of Amazon deciding that the topics overlap in too many customers’ minds, so it’s playing it safe to avoid future bad press.

None of this is an apologia for Amazon; I think the incest titles should be sold as long as the characters are consenting adults. But I’m not Amazon.

So Amazon can just do what it wants? This is an outrage!

Yes to the first question, within legal limits. As to whether or not it’s an outrage, Amazon is a company built to make money by selling goods to consumers, and as such it’s not compelled to sell everything that can be sold.

If you’re outraged by this, I encourage you to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Amazon calls the shots because it currently owns the marketplace when it comes to ebooks, and it locks down the Kindle so customers can’t easily buy ebooks from other places. It doesn’t have to be this way. Indie publishers can sell their titles elsewhere, sans DRM so that they’ll work on the Kindle, and authors and publishers can urge consumers to buy more open ebook devices so they’re not stuck in the Kindle’s walled garden. It will be an uphill battle to get noticed when you’re operating in Amazon’s shadow, but who knows, maybe you’ll stumble upon an innovative new sales strategy.

I love adult content in ebook form and I’m a happier man for its existence, so I hope this isn’t the sign of a coming crackdown on all Kindle erotica. Up to now, Amazon has been good at letting the erotica section of the Kindle Store alone, so that adults can purchase what they like without being held subject to another person’s moral restrictions. (For a taste of how prudish it could be, just take a look at Apple’s App Store and iBookstore and their zero-tolerance policies.)

Hopefully Amazon will clarify its content rules without further restricting them, but I’m not betting on it. In the meantime, this is an instructive lesson in the limitations of Amazon as a benevolent superstore of ebooks. My takeaways:

• Never rely on a single ebook retailer, because it will control what you have access to.
• Always make backups of your ebook purchases. In a more perfect world you should also remove the DRM if you really want to protect your rights, but the DCMA makes it illegal for me to link to any instructions on that. (We live in strange times when it comes to copyright.)
• new 12/17! Never trust a company to be a neutral steward of our shared culture, no matter how friendly a face it presents. A company is basically just a set of instructions for generating profit; anything else it produces, whether good or bad, is a byproduct.

(Photo: joguldi)