Coming Together has co-signed this letter from the ACLU (one of Coming Together's charities, as are signatories EFF and Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance) and several other organizations to PayPal with regard to its recent moratorium on transgressive/taboo erotica:
By Chris Conley (Mar 7, 2012 at 9:30 pm)Free speech isn't so free when booksellers have to choose between
hosting legitimate content and earning a living. Unfortunately, PayPal
is threatening to stop doing business with several online booksellers,
significantly impacting their revenue in the process, unless the
booksellers agree to stop providing content that is perfectly legal but
violates PayPal's policy. Please join us and
tell PayPal to stop throwing books on a digital bonfire.
The ACLU of California has joined a coalition of civil liberties
groups, booksellers and authors, and other organizations and individuals
who care about free speech in calling on PayPal to stop this practice
and encourage rather than suppress the distribution of content. We’ve
written an open letter to PayPal explaining our position, which is
copied below.
Please join the effort to safeguard online free speech by
sending an email to PayPal
telling it to reverse its policy of punishing authors, publishers, and
booksellers who create and distribute legitimate content. Your voices
can remind PayPal that protecting free speech everywhere is
good for business.
Here's a copy of our open letter to PayPal:
PayPal, which plays a dominant role in
processing online sales, has taken full advantage of the vast and open
nature of the Internet for commercial purposes, but is now holding free
speech hostage by clamping down on sales of certain types of erotica.
As organizations and individuals concerned with intellectual and
artistic freedom and a free Internet, we strongly object to PayPal
functioning as an enforcer of public morality and inhibiting the right
to buy and sell constitutionally protected material.
Recently, PayPal gave online publishers
and booksellers, including Book Strand, Smashwords, and eXcessica, an
ultimatum: it would close their accounts and refuse to process all
payments unless they removed erotic books containing descriptions of
rape, incest, and bestiality. The result would severely restrict the
public's access to a wide range of legal material, could drive some
companies out of business and deprive some authors of their livelihood.
Financial services providers should be
neutral when it comes to lawful online speech. PayPal’s policy
underscores how vulnerable such speech can be and how important it is to
stand up and protect it.
The topics PayPal would ban have been depicted in world literature since Sophocles’ Oedipus and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. And
while the books currently affected may not appear to be in the same
league, many works ultimately recognized for their literary, historical,
and artistic worth were reviled when first published. Books like Ulysses and Lady Chatterley’s Lover were
banned as “obscene” in the United States because of their sexual
content. The works of Marquis de Sade, which include descriptions
of incest, torture, and rape, were considered scandalous when written,
although his importance in the history of literature and political and
social philosophy is now widely acknowledged.
The Internet has become an
international public commons, like an enormous town square, where ideas
can be freely aired, exchanged, and criticized. That will change if
private companies, which are under no legal obligation to respect free
speech rights, are able to use their economic clout to dictate what
people should read, write, and think.
PayPal, and the myriad other payment
processors that support essential links in the free speech chain between
authors and audiences, should not operate as morality police.
Signed by:
Access
ACLU of California
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
Association of American Publishers
Authors Guild
BannedWriters.com
Bytes for All, Pakistan
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Coming Together, charity publisher
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Feminists for Free Expression
Index on Censorship
Internet Archive
National Coalition Against Censorship
Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
Peacefire
PEN American Center
Southern California Independent Booksellers Association
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance
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A mature, seductive swinger takes advantage of a willing & eager newlywed in Edward Teach's "A Honeymoon Affair" which is taken from Coming Together: The Erotic Cocktail (v2). SMASHWORDS ~ AMAZON.jpg)
A pragmatic, yet genuine and tender, "first time" for friends about to depart for college in Alex de Kok's "Take Me By Surprise" which comes from Coming Together: The Erotic Cocktail (v3). SMASHWORDS ~ AMAZON.jpg)
Jude Mason takes us on a journey to a mysterious, secluded island where the guests' deepest fantasies become reality. "Island of Fantasies" comes from Coming Together: At Last (v2). SMASHWORDS ~ AMAZON.jpg)
A double dinner date sours over relationship arguments until a helpful waiter sets the diners on a path to discovery and reconciliation in Jean Roberta's "The Feast of the Epiphany" which is taken from Coming Together: Into the Light. SMASHWORDS ~ AMAZON.jpg)
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Launching the Coming Together: Through Time line, which benefits The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, is Nobilis Reed's A Man, a Woman, and a Time Machine..jpg)
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Coming Together: In the Trenches is a military-themed collection of erotica and erotic romance edited by Lady Grey. All proceeds will benefit Protect Our Defenders..jpg)
Coming Together: Triumphantly is a collection of erotica that deals with reclaiming the body and sexuality after trauma. It contains stories of triumph, of healing, and of appreciating the body and its abilities after (and in spite of) the changes brought about by illness/injury. This collection will benefit the National Women's Health Network. (27,000 words)
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Kinky Book Reviews gives Coming Together: With a Twist 5 of 5 kinks!
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Coming Together: Hungry for Love is a collection of zombie-themed erotic fiction edited by the fabulous Sommer Marsden. Sales proceeds benefit the American Diabetes Association..jpg)
Elyse by Katie Daniels
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The zombierotica collection, edited by Sommer Marsden, is slated for Halloween 2012 release. Here's the cast of erotic altruists. (New contributors are bolded. Lots of Coming Together virgins in this volume!)
A collection of erotic fiction with a tentacle sex theme edited by Nobilis Reed. All proceeds benefit Oceana, the largest international organization working solely to protect the world's oceans. (107K+ words!)
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Available now! Coming Together: With a Twist is a collection of BDSM erotica & erotic romance from various Coming Together publications.
Coming Together Presents: Robert Buckley, Edited by Lisabet Sarai 
Who knew bonds were that risky? When she lost her shirt in the market, Jessie was halfway to her new career. She just needed a stop-gap, a breather before she found another job. Her rent was past due, and the only assets she could depend on for a good return were her body, which was guaranteed to earn interest, and her adventurous spirit. When she meets her trick, Jessie finds herself in a delicious triangle of sex that just might pay the bills. (4,200 words)
Reviewed By: Ashley Lister on EROTICA REVEALED
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