Hi, it was suggested to me this site to ask about legal stuff. Could it happen that all Stores (no one excluded) would remove a book because of the gender of the character(s) involved in certain scenes? For example the stereotyped scene of a female character who slaps her boyfriend after a cheating if the genders are swapped.
Hi @galianto99writer, and welcome to the forum Friendly mod advice... this is a writers' forum not a lawyers forum. We don't discuss legal stuff.
I could delete it, but it might provoke some interesting discussion without any legal angle - censorship and changing values is a very relevant issue to writers - in all honesty I don't think your post actually asks for legal or copyright advice apart from in the title! maybe I should just edit that...
On point of the question it is highly unlikely that any major store would remove a book purely because of the gender of a character in a scene in general when stores remove books it is because either they violate their terms of service or the files are corrupt and generating a lot of technical complaints As hammer said we don’t do specific legal advice here but this doesn’t appear to be a legal question
In answer to your question. Itvwould really depend on the contract. If you are unsure of something in the contract, consult a legal professional that specializes in that type of law. Your state or county bar association can refer you to the correct people, often at a reduced rate for the consult.
If it could be done without people thinking anyone was dispensing actual legal advice, it'd be nice to have a subforum over in the Publishing end where people can ask these kind of questions. And compare weird clauses in publishers' contracts and ask questions about IP rights and all that sort of thing. Ultimately one should retain an IP attorney for that sort of thing, but it's good to have some awareness of the business end of writing so you don't waste attorney time and lots of cash.
yeah, no. We’re not a forum for legal advice and this being the internet where anyone might be a dog, no one here is definitely placed to give it, ergo we’re not going to have a subforum for that kind of issue… the best place to ask these questions is to a legal specialist, either a lawyer or someone from an authors association general questions can be asked in the general forums
Amazon removed When Harry Became Sally from its online shelves in 2021. Also A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Whatever you think of these issues, the censorship involved concerns us all, because if they can censor a book they deem hateful at their sole discretion, who can be assured of being safe?
They're a market place though - they have the right to sell or not sell whatever they want, just like a Ford Dealer isnt obliged to sell GMs... a private entity not selling a product they don't like doesn't equal censorship
Unless they make up most of the market, as Amazon does. Plus the books with similar content that they do sell, they’ve programmed their algorithms to make sure they appear very low in search results. (That’s why I use their recommendation engine to find new books.) Censorship comes in many forms.
if its a private entity its not censorship..you're free to shop elsewhere...if lots of people decide to shop elsewhere then it shows they made a poor commercial decision...the fact that two years later they have a bigger share of the market than they did at the time suggests that most consumers aren't too fussed about the decision.
Censorship would be the government telling Amazon, barnes&noble, etc. That they cannot sell XYZ by Joe Doe. It would also be the same government telling the publishing houses they can't print that same book. Businesses used to have signs saying "We reserve the right to refuse service." Which sums up what Amazon did removing the two books you mentioned.
