Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

There’s some strange goings-on at Random House. First, it canceled the publication of the Jewel of Medina on the grounds that it would stir up some terrorist action.

After sending out advance editions of the novel THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, we received in response, from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.

Second, it decided to insert a behavioral clause in its YA author contracts.

“If you act or behave in a way which damages your reputation as a person suitable to work with or be associated with children, and consequently the market for or value of the work is seriously diminished, and we may (at our option) take any of the following actions: Delay publication / Renegotiate advance / Terminate the agreement.”

Now it has changed the word “twat” to “twit” in Jacqueline Wilson’s My Sister Jodie. The book is aimed at children ages 10 and over and has already sold 150,000 copies. The changes will appear in any reprints. It’s unclear whether the …

Several booksellers filed suit in May to challenge the newly passed Indiana legislation that would require every store that sold “sexually explicit” material to register with the Secretary of State and pay a fee. Because the term “sexually explicit” was so broad, the US District Court hearing the case ruled that the law was “too broad and said it could be applied against ‘unquestionably lawful, nonobscene, nonpornographic materials being sold to adults.’” The judge went on to state:

”A romance novel sold at a drugstore, a magazine offering sex advice in a grocery store checkout line, an R-rated DVD sold by a video rental shop, a collection of old Playboy magazines sold by a widow at a garage sale . . . would appear to necessitate registration under the statute.”

The entire decision can be accessed here.

Via Shelfawareness.

According to Gawker Media (who sounds like an idealist whose idol was shown to have clay feet) reports that Boing Boing, a site helmed by Cory Doctorow and others, has been removing the blog posts of Violet Blue. I haven’t found a reason. Violet Blue was engaged in a controversy for having the gall to actually touch Steve Jobs at this years’ Macworld conference but that was in January. Violet Blue also contributes to Fleshbot as a sex advice columnist. Others have speculated about the disappearance but no answers are forthcoming from Boing Boing.Via Gawker.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) met with a number of technology executives and argued forcefully that ISPs must stand up for net neutrality or face the removal of legal safe harbors and tax freedom. One of those legal safe harbors is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which provides immunity from liability for ISPs for the wrongful acts of others.

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

Net neutrality is the concept that allows unfettered access to the internet. Some people have proposed tiered access to the internet. Companies would pay for its content to be put on a faster bandwidth and companies that didn’t pay, like DearAuthor, would be shunted to the end where it would take a long time to load. Other net neutrality issues is the censorship of content which occurs frequently in non democratic countries like China.

Net neutrality is an important issue for anyone who uses the internet.

Via Ars Technica. Thanks RebeccaJ for bringing this article to our attention.

HEA 1042 is a new Indiana law which requires any seller of sexually explicit materials to pay a fee of $250 and register with the secretary of state. This information is passed on to local officials so that they can monitor the businesses activities. “Sexually explicit materials” is defined as follows in the bill:

Sec. 2. (a) For purposes of this chapter, materials, products, or services are “sexually explicit materials, products, or services” if:
(1) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that:
(A) the dominant theme of the materials, products, or services, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in sex; or
(B) the materials, products, or services depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct; or
(2) the materials, products, or services are designed for use in or marketed primarily for:
(A) the stimulation of human genital organs; or
…