estirose

So, I was looking at EFF's (Electronic Frontier Foundation) website on another issue and happened across this whole mess about Paypal forcing certain electronic publishers to not publish certain kinds of erotica. (There's a whole mess of posts about this; search Paypal censorship in your favorite/least objectionable search engine for more details.) One of the victims is smashwords.

Those of us who have been with Dreamwidth for a while know that there were issues with content on DW and Paypal's objection to it, which is why Dreamwidth doesn't use Paypal anymore. They also cut off wikileaks. (I know that some people would say "good riddance!" but I have no issues with Wikileaks.)

I'm sure some people will protest because of the kinds of erotica covered (incest, bestiality, some kinds of underage sex). But there's no damn good fikanta reason why Paypal should be able to tell a publisher that a legal novel can't be sold just because of the content. As someone who's taken library studies (I will take the last class for my certificate, I swear) and has been interested in the wherefores and whys of book censorship for years, I do not get censorship, period. I know that the people who do it mean well, but that doesn't justify preventing other people from reading it.

I don't know what it is about human sexuality that makes people uncomfortable. Rick Falkvinge discusses in one column on Torrentfreak about how lobbyists/politicians use child pornography as a way of getting bills passed that threaten peoples' privacy and freedom of speech. (To me, child porn is a bad thing, but I firmly believe that you cannot protect children by reducing adults' rights to the rights of children. I know someone made that quote, and I keep wanting to associate it with Robert Croneberger, but I don't think it's him. However, for those who want a good idea of community standards and how hard it is for libraries to do certain things, here's some of his testimony from, I believe, challenges to the Communications Decency Act.)

Anyay, those who know me well know I like to ramble. And rant, in this case. I actually had a main point to this post, which is I wanted to share the postal address and phone number of Paypal, in case you want to phone or postal mail them in protest. I could have checked one of the numerous anti-PayPal sites, but I have to admit, I did it the old-fashioned way by digging out their customer service number and asking a customer service rep very politely where I could write in a complaint. For one, I know that call center reps remember those odd calls where someone's requesting something unusual, and it gets mentioned to managers that hey, we're getting calls about filing complaints, maybe the higher ups would like to know. Two, I wanted to get the address from the horse's mouth, as it was.

(If you are in the U.S. and do want to call PayPal and do something similar, their customer service number is 1-888-221-1161. You need to tell the voice automated system that you don't have an account (even if you do) and keep telling it "agent". I made the mistake of telling it "postal address" and it insisted on giving me a whole spiel about changing my address on the site. Totally useless. Ask the agent politely for Paypal's address as you would like to postal mail a complaint. Do not become irate at them, they have nothing to do with Paypal's policy. I, in fact, will be including a compliment about the agent that took my call when I write them a letter.)

The address that customer service gave me, and I confirmed, is:
Paypal, Inc
2211 N 1st St
San Jose, CA 95131

Bizarrely enough, their corporate phone number is not in San Jose, because San Jose is in the 408 area code. That number is 402-935-7733. Again, if you are calling (or postal mailing), be polite but firm. I'm personally using the sandwich technique for my letter.

ETA: It seems this is less intentional censorship than written erotica being lumped in by the credit card processors with the far more chargeback-heavy other adult industries. (It still doesn't excuse their actions towards Dreamwidth.) I'll be pointing out to them that while we can do our part to protest to the credit card companies so that Paypal doesn't have to worry about taking hits, they have to do their part and stand up to these companies as well by talking to them and also by the actions of no longer lumping in written erotica with high-chargeback adult industries. And I will be sending letters to Visa and Mastercard - if I do, I will include addresses and phone numbers here.