iBowdlerize

[robin_d_laws]

Comments

[shannon_a]

I don't follow why you think a publisher--or if you prefer, a distributor--should be forced to sell things they don't want to. As others have said, you can get normal PDFs and load them onto your iPad via any number of ways. I've read more PDFs via those means than via Apple's ebooks, and I suspect I'm far from the only person for who that's the case.

Do you believe that DriveThruRPG should have to carry material they disagree with? e23? Paizo? Diamond? Why or why not? I'd argue that some of those people have at least as much of a hold on distribution to their genre as Apple does to their medium.

[robin_d_laws]

I'm not proposing to force anyone to do anything.

[mysticalforest]

They should sell content they symbolically don't want because it's symbolically important to you?

[robin_d_laws]

Not just to me.

We have all, those of us who live in countries with a tradition of free expression, benefited from booksellers' efforts, symbolic and actual, to advocate, advance, and fight for the crucial principle of free expression. It does not take care of itself; it needs constant tending.

To the extent that the next wave of booksellers ignores this tradition, or worse, in the case of Apple, thoughtlessly establishes itself as an force for censorship, the free exchange of ideas is threatened.

So, yes, booksellers should want to uphold this tradition. They should want to sell books.

[mysticalforest]

>it needs constant tending

But that doesn't mean it needs to appear everywhere-the free exchange of ideas is not threatened by Apple any more than by a hardware store that doesn't sell romance novels (they do sell books, magazines, and videos after all). Free thought is not threatened by this.

[robin_d_laws]

With great market share comes great responsibility.

[robertprior]

What of, say, Chapters/Indigo?

They famously don't stock books that Heather strongly disagrees with. And they have a pretty huge share of the brick-and-mortar market in Canada.

[robin_d_laws]

I find certain critiques of the way Heather Reisman uses her power overblown. That said, the instance you mention is one in which Chapters/Indigo does clearly fail in its responsibilities as a bookseller.