Ebay offensive material policy - Just the beginning of censorship, already happening? Whats the scoop? 3 3

[Namtak]

[Rip]

1 hour ago, Phill the Governor said:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ebay-dr-seuss-books-listings-removed

This line really caught my attention and is quite worrisome considering who we are letting draw the line of what is "right" and what is "wrong":

eBay Corporate Communications Specialist Parmita Choudhury said. "We're currently sweeping our marketplace to remove these items. It can take some time to review all existing listings and provide education to impacted users. We're also monitoring the newly published list to be reviewed."

It's quite easy to remove these listings. Sounds like political lip service. Don't worry I hear she has her top men working on it right now. 

There must of been over 75 copies that sold today, and hundreds upon hundreds of listed copies

I guess we'll see if she follows through, but I really doubt it. In a week or two people will get outraged about another topic.

Companies should really stop reading Twitter. Ego+Crazy+Outspoken=trouble.

As a side note, as an investment its a poor one. I would just relist and cash in.

 

 

[THE_BEYONDER]

So now I just have to figure out what books will next hit the censorship chopping block and start stocking up. 

[jcjames]

3 minutes ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

So now I just have to figure out what books will next hit the censorship chopping block and start stocking up. 

1. Flag your own books as offensive.

2. Wait for feebay to ban them.

3. Relist them.

4. Profit!

 

[THE_BEYONDER]

2 minutes ago, jcjames said:

1. Flag your own books as offensive.

2. Wait for feebay to ban them.

3. Relist them.

4. Profit!

 

[Namtak]

In a way i think people like to be offended ,give them some importance or something like that.

[Jimmy Linguini]

[Jimmy Linguini]

[thehumantorch]

3 hours ago, F For Fake said:

Just to be clear, in case my tone isn’t easy to read, I’m not trying to be combative or start a fight, or make anyone mad. 

That being said: 

Was it censorship when eBay decided that we couldn’t sell digital codes to comics and movies? Was it censorship when they decided some items were adults only and others were acceptable to be listed in public areas? There are thousands of items that eBay has changed their stance on over the years, from a variety of categories, and have decided they don’t want sold on their site. It’s not censorship, it’s a business decision. If eBay thought that they’d make enough money allowing this stuff to be sold on their site to outweigh the number of complaints and bad pub they’d receive, then they’d still allow the books to be sold there. eBay isn’t taking a moral stand. eBay doesn’t have any morality ha They’re covering their financial butts.

There are countries in the world where people have to deal with actual censorship, in that they could be put to death for saying dangerous things. Not being able to sell a book on eBay is an inconvenience. It’s not worth getting agitated about. There are probably hundreds of thousands of copies of these books in circulation. If anyone wanted a copy, they surely had plenty of time to get one.

And to be clear I'm not trying to be combative and I have a lot of respect for you and many others posting in this thread.

Here's the definition of censorship "the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable" 

Why ebay makes a decision - profit, image, etc - doesn't matter .  They are certainly prohibiting a book because it's now considered politically unacceptable and that exactly fits the definition of censorship.  And this is just the beginning   

[JollyComics]

3 hours ago, Number 6 said:

I’ve seen all of them moving in transit here at the library....which means they’re all about to suddenly get “lost”. 

I tried to reserve that book from my local library. I am now #19 hold list!!!  Probably the first person will keep the book until the loaner has to pay the replacement fee for the lost book.

[F For Fake]

5 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

And to be clear I'm not trying to be combative and I have a lot of respect for you and many others posting in this thread.

Here's the definition of censorship "the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable" 

Why ebay makes a decision - profit, image, etc - doesn't matter .  They are certainly prohibiting a book because it's now considered politically unacceptable and that exactly fits the definition of censorship.  And this is just the beginning   

Fair enough. I’m glad that we can all have the reasonable discussion that we’ve had, without it getting ugly, or having the thread locked up.

And you may very well be right about it being the beginning. Looks like they’re coming for Hansi now too! That being said, at the end of the day I think perspective is important. EBay may very well come for all of the questionable content our admittedly checkered comic past has to offer. Should that be the case, the stuff will still exist. We can sell GA books here, we can sell and buy them at shows, etc. eBay is a huge market, but the buyer pool for a lot of this stuff (speaking of GA comics, not Dr Seuss) is fairly small as it is.  If anything, it’ll probably just drive prices up further (bad for buyers, good for sellers) and increasingly lead them to markets like the one we have here.

Culture is changing. Is all of this hubbub a manufactured product of needless pearl-clutching, or is it possible that some of these things are overdue for reassessment? I think it’s probably a little of both. I don’t judge the collectors and fans, I am into plenty of stuff that is probably sketchy (at best!) But I also don’t think it’s the end of the world either.

[Bird]

14 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

They are certainly prohibiting a book because it's now considered politically unacceptable and that exactly fits the definition of censorship

I think a lot of this is semantics, but ebay is not the only source for this material. So it may be a very loose fit for the word but I think it is hyperbole. Ebay cannot censor Dr Seuss material off the ebay site.

[Namtak]

Just to lighten the mood heres some gaston,and yes at the age of 13 i tryed to do this door mechanism even had the proper spring buuut nooo my parents objected categoricaly maybe someday.....

[James J Johnson]

3 hours ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

So now I just have to figure out what books will next hit the censorship chopping block and start stocking up. 

Maybe this one. For native appropriation! I doubt Rex was of Native American ancestry. 

 

 

[jcjames]

1 hour ago, thehumantorch said:

And to be clear I'm not trying to be combative and I have a lot of respect for you and many others posting in this thread.

Here's the definition of censorship "the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable" 

Why ebay makes a decision - profit, image, etc - doesn't matter .  They are certainly prohibiting a book because it's now considered politically unacceptable and that exactly fits the definition of censorship.  And this is just the beginning   

I'm testing feebay to see if they will pull one of the "cop killer" cds I posted earlier in the thread - I reported it for offensive violent content.

We'll see if it only takes one person complaining to cause them to censor/ban items.

 

[snitzer]

12 minutes ago, jcjames said:

I'm testing feebay to see if they will pull one of the "cop killer" cds I posted earlier in the thread - I reported it for offensive violent content.

We'll see if it only takes one person complaining to cause them to censor/ban items.

 

A person could stay really busy flagging stuff on there 

[jcjames]

9 minutes ago, snitzer said:

A person could stay really busy flagging stuff on there 

Yeah, just seeing what they say/do about that. It's an experiment... like for science!

[adampasz]

I get not marketing books with dated imagery to kids, but it is ridiculous to stop adults selling products to other adults on a site for collectors.  I wonder if this was intended to stop people from scalping these books at ridiculous prices, and from suggesting that eBay is profiting from it. I'm convinced there are billions of copies of these books out there, and they will have little long-term value.

Regardless seems like an awful move by eBay. And they're also ending eBay bucks!

FWIW, I thought On Beyond Zebra was a really neat book as a kid because the new letters looked cool. I couldn't even remember what racist imagery they were talking about until I saw the pics online. You can scrutinize 20th century art and literature and find endless stuff that now seems inappropriate.

Just random thoughts. Hope this is not too political for the boards.

[jcjames]

2 minutes ago, adampasz said:

I get not marketing books with dated imagery to kids, but it is ridiculous to stop adults selling products to other adults on a site for collectors.  I wonder if this was intended to stop people from scalping these books at ridiculous prices, and from suggesting that eBay is profiting from it. I'm convinced there are billions of copies of these books out there, and they will have little long-term value.

Regardless seems like an awful move by eBay. And they're also ending eBay bucks!

FWIW, I thought On Beyond Zebra was a really neat book as a kid because the new letters looked cool. I couldn't even remember what racist imagery they were talking about until I saw the pics online. You can scrutinize 20th century art and literature and find endless stuff that now seems inappropriate.

Just random thoughts. Hope this is not too political for the boards.

And that's the goal.

There is no culture, not a one, that could survive the ever-expanding removal of its history, art, literature, philosophy and heroes, under the pseudonyms of "inclusion" and "tolerance".

 

[adampasz]

I just searched for "crossed avatar press" and saw many images I personally consider extremely offensive, and would never want my kids to see.

That said, this is undoubtably a business decision by eBay, and probably a lose-lose for them because they would have been accused of profiting from these inflated sales due to the "controversy". They should have instead, donated all their proceeds to charity.