Amazon.com removes pedophile advice book after receiving 3,000 comments

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Amazon.com has pulled ‘The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure’ a day after the Kindle e-book’s listing on the shopping website ignited anger from hundreds of customers.

The controversial book was available for purchase Wednesday through the Seattle-based online retailer, but a click on any link to the book’s listing on Amazon directs to a page that says ‘We’re sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site.’

Amazon officials were not available to comment about the book Thursday morning.

The book, described on Amazon by its author, Phillip R. Greaves, is an ‘attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles ... by establishing certain rules for these adults to follow.’

The listing said the book was published for the Kindle, Amazon’s popular e-reader device, on Oct. 28.

Greaves’ book garnered more than 3,000 comments while it was available for sale, and commenters gave the book an average rating of one star.

The majority of the comments criticized the book, its author and Amazon for listing the book as being for sale, including those who said they would boycott the website until the book was removed. Some commenters, however, applauded Amazon for making the book available for sale, citing free-speech rights.

The issue raised questions over Amazon’s protocol in deciding which books to sell when allowing writers to publish books themselves through the retailer’s online store -- a process in which Amazon shares in the sales revenue.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Amazon said it ‘believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable.’

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles