Poll: Amazon, Please leave and take your fail with you

[Dragunai]

Right so I have just discovered from reliable sources on facebook (lol ^_^) and backed by more reliable sources such as news websites that Amazon.co.uk was selling a "Peadophile guidebook" to the masses and thought they could get away with it based on the "Freedom of Speech" shizzle not realising that "Freedom of Distribution" is a totally different legal monkey.

It has since been removed due to massive pressure from annoyed objectors but this isn't even the most interesting point. As it stands large numbers of people setup a boycott or embargo on the company and in the space of a week their shares fell pretty damn sharply. It averaged about $2 a day and that doesnt sound like much but in order for it to go do so badly on a daily basis they had to be losing hundred ofs thousands of dollars in sales if not millions.

I personally love Amazon for its quality of business and its ethics. I buy a lot of gear from them and its usually very high quality, cheap and comes fast. When I preordered Black Ops I got an email 2 days after getting it saying the price had gone down and in accordance with their policies I got a refund of £3. Not much but it shows the company cares about my business enough to do it and considering this game sold over 7 million units world wide I can only imagine how many refunds from sales they must have handed out.

So, is Amazon Evil or Good?

What do you think?

 

[tavelkyosoba]

Amazon is an unbiased purveyor of all things. At least they were.

I don't think they should have stopped selling it simply because a few people stomped their feet, they're doing a true dis-service to their customers in doing so.

Censorship always causes harm, even in this instance. Absolutely, a pedophile might use the information for evil deeds...but just as easily parents can use the information to protect their children.

People wanted to protect the children from predators by barring access to practical information that can protect children from those very predators.

Well done alarmists, well done.

 

[Space Spoons]

Amazon is neither good nor evil. It's a website where you can buy stuff, essentially a virtual Wal-Mart. Whether that stuff is used for good or ill is entirely in the hands of the customers, and isn't Amazon's responsibility. Hell, they probably sell bowie knives, too, but no one would think to blame them if somebody got stabbed with one.

 

[Madara XIII]

SHIT!!! Did Pedobear actually publish that book he was bragging about!?

FREAKING LOL!!!!

With that I'll post my song for today!!

C'mon everybody!! Do the Pedobear Dance

<youtube=GAHfZNPoLW0>

 

[Nevyrmoore]

What's the name of this guide book, by the way? I'd like to check for myself if it's indeed, as you say, a guide for paedophiles, or something like Machiavelli's The Prince, which was actually thinly veiled satire after the Medici family decided to torture him.

 

[thahat]

Amazon is neither good nor evil. It's a website where you can buy stuff, essentially a virtual Wal-Mart. Whether that stuff is used for good or ill is entirely in the hands of the customers, and isn't Amazon's responsibility. Hell, they probably sell bowie knives, too, but no one would think to blame them if somebody got stabbed with one.

secretly i suspect a goblin is behind amazon and is just waiting to go welkom to gneebs emporium! /malfunctioning flashing sign!
what do you want to buy!

 

[Stasisesque]

What's the name of this guide book, by the way? I'd like to check for myself if it's indeed, as you say, a guide for paedophiles, or something like Machiavelli's The Prince, which was actually thinly veiled satire after the Medici family decided to torture him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11731928

Name is listed in there, along with the author's pseudonym.

 

[Gigaguy64]

SHIT!!! Did Pedobear actually publish that book he was bragging about!?

FREAKING LOL!!!!

With that I'll post my song for today!!

C'mon everybody!! Do the Pedobear Dance

<youtube=GAHfZNPoLW0>

I wonder what Oprah will have to say on this subject.

 

[Wintermoot]

I like Amazon but I dont like it they only sell the good stuff (FO3 Survival edition for example)in the US wich doesnt send stuff internationaly

 

[Lilani]

To answer your question, I've a few good deals on Amazon, so I rather like them. I think they're "good" or "evil" in the same way Walmart is "good" or "evil," in that they're as good or evil as you wish them to be.

I guess I understand why Amazon wouldn't want something like that on their site, but at the same time, I think it would be helpful to parents to sort of get an "inside look" at how pedophiles go about doing what they do, if the book is serious. I can see how evil can be done with it of course, but I highly doubt the pulling of it will stop or prevent pedophilia in any way.

If someone wants to do those things to kids, they'll find a way. And to find comfort in the book being pulled is just shying away from the issue at hand.

 

[Misho-]

Amazon is neither good nor evil. It's a website where you can buy stuff, essentially a virtual Wal-Mart. Whether that stuff is used for good or ill is entirely in the hands of the customers, and isn't Amazon's responsibility. Hell, they probably sell bowie knives, too, but no one would think to blame them if somebody got stabbed with one.

This is the boring, yet, right on the money way to look at it... Just look Dildo up in there... They won't even ask you for an Age restriction... It's just a site selling stuff. I think the real assh*les are the guys that made such guide... Blergh

 

[bpm195]

To quote Amazon:

"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."

They get it, too bad the general public kinda sucks.

 

[zidine100]

This is the boring, yet, right on the money way to look at it... Just look Dildo up in there... They won't even ask you for an Age restriction... It's just a site selling stuff. I think the real assh*les are the guys that made such guide... Blergh

you have to be over age to register with amazon.

hence making that point somewhat moot, as there not selling dildos to minors (im assuming thats your main point here)

Are Children Allowed to Use Amazon.co.uk?

Amazon.co.uk does not sell products for purchase by children. We sell children's products for purchase by adults. If you are under 18, you may use Amazon.co.uk only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

and the fact that if a kids going to search for a dildo on amazon there going to search on Google which would make it somewhat, pointless to add a filter.

 

[Deathsong17]

My parent's entire livelyhood rests on Amazon.

I'm for it.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Amazon sells things, thats it. There are people trying to boycott supermarkets selling reindeer meat for Christmas at the moment, there are people who think all Japanese novels depicting lolicon are evil, and there are of course respected politicians trying to get gaming turning into a criminal culture. Your definition of where the line is drawn is just that. Yours. I admit that most people would try to draw the line at paedophilia but even then, is the line drawn at ephebophilia? Or hebephilia? It's all a matter of culture and personal morality.

I doubt someone at Amazon thought they could 'get away' with it, I doubt anyone with any power at Amazon even knew it was being sold until it was brought up.

 

[Misho-]

This is the boring, yet, right on the money way to look at it... Just look Dildo up in there... They won't even ask you for an Age restriction... It's just a site selling stuff. I think the real assh*les are the guys that made such guide... Blergh

you have to be over age to register with amazon.

hence making that point somewhat moot, as there not selling dildos to minors (im assuming thats your main point here)

Are Children Allowed to Use Amazon.co.uk?

Amazon.co.uk does not sell products for purchase by children. We sell children's products for purchase by adults. If you are under 18, you may use Amazon.co.uk only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

and the fact that if a kids going to search for a dildo on amazon there going to search on Google which would make it somewhat, pointless to add a filter.

Lol all too true but you don't need to register to look up Items... Since anyone, even a minor can go into Amazon and look up a Dildo (since Amazon, not Google is the subject matter here) there should be at least be an Age Restriction filter for search items...

That said I was actually referring to the idea that using that argument (the previous one) one could "argue" that Amazon is evil because it lets people browse freely for items that are not appropiate/safe/decent... When it's not.

If you want to sell it, Amazon it's just going to post it. I'm guessing they have their own filters but they are just selling shit. Period, again its the people that made it (in the case of the Guide) the real assh*les here.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

Amazon is neither good nor evil. It's a website where you can buy stuff, essentially a virtual Wal-Mart. Whether that stuff is used for good or ill is entirely in the hands of the customers, and isn't Amazon's responsibility. Hell, they probably sell bowie knives, too, but no one would think to blame them if somebody got stabbed with one.

This is the boring, yet, right on the money way to look at it... Just look Dildo up in there... They won't even ask you for an Age restriction... It's just a site selling stuff. I think the real assh*les are the guys that made such guide... Blergh

Yup thats it.
but by the way, since when is it necessary to ask for ages before showing artificial reproductions of bodyparts? You can see them in a friggin artsmuseum!

 

[Misho-]

Amazon is neither good nor evil. It's a website where you can buy stuff, essentially a virtual Wal-Mart. Whether that stuff is used for good or ill is entirely in the hands of the customers, and isn't Amazon's responsibility. Hell, they probably sell bowie knives, too, but no one would think to blame them if somebody got stabbed with one.

This is the boring, yet, right on the money way to look at it... Just look Dildo up in there... They won't even ask you for an Age restriction... It's just a site selling stuff. I think the real assh*les are the guys that made such guide... Blergh

Yup thats it.
but by the way, since when is it necessary to ask for ages before showing artificial reproductions of bodyparts? You can see them in a friggin artsmuseum!

You know... I will never see huge plaster genitalia the same way before... But don't get me wrong... As my other post specified the Age restriction filter is always thrown in to take the resposibility off the site promoting and or/selling such reproductions and putting the blame on the customer that browse such items under their own Conscious decision... Therefore the availability to just look at items like ermm "insert pornstar name here" DVD is like promoting porn making Amazon evil...

Which it isn't by the way.