I'm almost afraid of the responses I'll get by posting this here...But, oh well. Amazon has decided to remove all yaoi/hentai (or all porn or so they say) from their Kindle store. As of yet, mostly yaoi has gone. The REAL porn is still there but maybe to them it's not "offensive" enough. For those who would like to follow the drama and maybe even help out protesting:

http://theyaoireview.com/2011/05/03/yaoi-news-kindle-bans-some-yaoi-titles/

There are others covering it, like ANN.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-05-04/amazon-pulls-some-yaoi/bl-manga-from-u.s-kindle-store

well that's just stupid! i mean i am a fan, a FAN of yaoi. although I do not own a kindle or make purchases off of amazon, this royally pisses me off! smh! discrimination! what we are america, home of the REAL porn. perverts! (i guess i'm a perv for reading yaoi...but if it wasnt meant to be read, it woudn't be published ^_^ )there's always that person that's against anime/manga and the art style. and they're a homophobe on top of that! thumbs down to u sir, THUMBS DOWN!

and for you hentai lovers...this is cruel too! i think an animated version of sexual acts isn't as bad as seeing it with real people. i mean, yeah, sometimes it turns into some wierd thing, but it's funny. i think real porn is more offensive than animated porn. -.-"

Well, admittedly gay cartoon porn is a twofer. It crosses two intellectual boundaries, so just from a general standpoint you can sort of see why Amazon would target it first.

But...really... is yaoi an acronym for YAma-nashi, Ochi-nashi, Imi-nashi, which roughly translates to "no climax, resolution, or meaning [lit. no rise, fall, or meaning]" Even the name is self-deprecating (although from an ironic standpoint partially untrue in English.) So... I don't know. From a marketing standpoint it makes sense aside from getting the ACLU up in arms, though it's a private corporation without a monopoly and with guidelines strictly embedded in contracts, so I doubt there'll be any successful legal action.

shrug. What do I care? The physical copies are unaffected... digital censorship is what it is.

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NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...

Apparently, there are Kindle-exclusive yaoi titles that they are removing too, so opting to buy the print version wouldn't work...and...Amazon has to power to tell people what they can/can't read because they literally have a contract with a manga company to publish the digital only manga.

Oh Amazon. You're still keeping your real people porn on the kindle store, but removing yaoi and hentai?

I was debating Nook or Kindle what with the rumored Amazon tablet coming out, but now I know.

Hello Nook.

Quote from miko amayo

Apparently, there are Kindle-exclusive yaoi titles that they are removing too, so opting to buy the print version wouldn't work...and...Amazon has to power to tell people what they can/can't read because they literally have a contract with a manga company to publish the digital only manga.

If that's the case, that means they weren't good enough to be picked up by a normal publisher. The author should just self-publish with another venue, since it won't show up anywhere else anyway.

That would require some licensing maneuvering in some cases.

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Reviews of my Work:
You are kind of boring - Blackorion
Congratulations! Ur an asshole! - tokyo_homi
**Your awesome!!! **- Cherelle_Ashley
NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...

Quote from Crenshinibon

Quote from miko amayo

Apparently, there are Kindle-exclusive yaoi titles that they are removing too, so opting to buy the print version wouldn't work...and...Amazon has to power to tell people what they can/can't read because they literally have a contract with a manga company to publish the digital only manga.

If that's the case, that means they weren't good enough to be picked up by a normal publisher. The author should just self-publish with another venue, since it won't show up anywhere else anyway.

Uhm, NO. It means the publisher decided to go all digital. This is a major Japanese yaoi publisher, Libre, and very well known yaoi mangakas and manga. I'm guessing Libre went this route to cut some costs and avoid issues with U.S. publishers.

Well, admittedly gay cartoon porn is a twofer. It crosses two intellectual boundaries, so just from a general standpoint you can sort of see why Amazon would target it first.

But...really... is yaoi an acronym for YAma-nashi, Ochi-nashi, Imi-nashi, which roughly translates to "no climax, resolution, or meaning [lit. no rise, fall, or meaning]" Even the name is self-deprecating (although from an ironic standpoint partially untrue in English.) So... I don't know. From a marketing standpoint it makes sense aside from getting the ACLU up in arms, though it's a private corporation without a monopoly and with guidelines strictly embedded in contracts, so I doubt there'll be any successful legal action.

shrug. What do I care? The physical copies are unaffected... digital censorship is what it is.

BL doesn't really count as gay porn...

well that's just stupid! i mean i am a fan, a FAN of yaoi. although I do not own a kindle or make purchases off of amazon, this royally pisses me off! smh! discrimination! what we are america, home of the REAL porn. perverts! (i guess i'm a perv for reading yaoi...but if it wasnt meant to be read, it woudn't be published ^_^ )there's always that person that's against anime/manga and the art style. and they're a homophobe on top of that! thumbs down to u sir, THUMBS DOWN!

As a BL (or as you call it, yaoi,which isn't regualrly used in Japanese publishing) artist, I am slightly offended by this topic comparing hentai to BL so much.

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝓈𝑒'𝓈 𝓇𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓃𝓈.” ― 𝑀𝒶𝓌𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒶 𝒥𝒶𝓁𝒶𝓁-𝒶𝓁-𝒟𝒾𝓃 𝑅𝓊𝓂𝒾.
あたしは腐女子です。少女漫画、たくさん読んでください。

Quote from Bunny-chan

Well, admittedly gay cartoon porn is a twofer. It crosses two intellectual boundaries, so just from a general standpoint you can sort of see why Amazon would target it first.

But...really... is yaoi an acronym for YAma-nashi, Ochi-nashi, Imi-nashi, which roughly translates to "no climax, resolution, or meaning [lit. no rise, fall, or meaning]" Even the name is self-deprecating (although from an ironic standpoint partially untrue in English.) So... I don't know. From a marketing standpoint it makes sense aside from getting the ACLU up in arms, though it's a private corporation without a monopoly and with guidelines strictly embedded in contracts, so I doubt there'll be any successful legal action.

shrug. What do I care? The physical copies are unaffected... digital censorship is what it is.

BL doesn't really count as gay porn...

That's fair enough- that phrase was only directed at yaoi (which by its original definition exists solely for smut, and from a marketing lens is essentially the same as porn), it had nothing to do with shounen-ai.

Quote from meichells

Uhm, NO. It means the publisher decided to go all digital. This is a major Japanese yaoi publisher, Libre, and very well known yaoi mangakas and manga. I'm guessing Libre went this route to cut some costs and avoid issues with U.S. publishers.

Also reasonable, I should have looked more thoroughly into that in particular, but if that's the case, it's also their fault for signing any sort of exclusive contract with Amazon. There are dozens upon dozens of ebook formats and plenty of ways to market (to higher profit, at that, as amazon scrapes off a comparably massive percentage of each sale) without going through the kindle service. If a clause in a company's guidelines explicitly states that they can choose to reject anything said company deems inappropriate, that company is based in the states (which, let's be fair, has unnecessary issues with this particular topic), and you run a Japanese BL label, it's probably not the smartest move in the world to sign with them.

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Reviews of my Work:
You are kind of boring - Blackorion
Congratulations! Ur an asshole! - tokyo_homi
**Your awesome!!! **- Cherelle_Ashley
NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...

Quote from Crenshinibon

Quote from Bunny-chan

Well, admittedly gay cartoon porn is a twofer. It crosses two intellectual boundaries, so just from a general standpoint you can sort of see why Amazon would target it first.

But...really... is yaoi an acronym for YAma-nashi, Ochi-nashi, Imi-nashi, which roughly translates to "no climax, resolution, or meaning [lit. no rise, fall, or meaning]" Even the name is self-deprecating (although from an ironic standpoint partially untrue in English.) So... I don't know. From a marketing standpoint it makes sense aside from getting the ACLU up in arms, though it's a private corporation without a monopoly and with guidelines strictly embedded in contracts, so I doubt there'll be any successful legal action.

shrug. What do I care? The physical copies are unaffected... digital censorship is what it is.

BL doesn't really count as gay porn...

That's fair enough- that phrase was only directed at yaoi (which by its original definition exists solely for smut, and from a marketing lens is essentially the same as porn), it had nothing to do with shounen-ai.

You do realize shonen-ai is used nowadays to refer to paedophilic tendencies and shotacon, correct? BL is technically referring to all boy/boy romances (yes, there is porn too, but I wouldn't call it necessarily"gay porn" because I have seen homosexual pornography, and for me its a huge turn-off, well, if I think about it, gay porn is like the straight-porn for gay men... so, yeah, I don't really get it) for women and girls.

Well, technically, yaoi is starting to become a dated term, and only people in Western publishing tend to use it regularly. Yes, I like "yaoi"... I am a huge fan of Ashika Sakura's works, especially, Sensitive Pornograph, which I prefer not to label as "gay porn", it may be categorized as porn due to the adult content and suggestive title, but gay porn? No.

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝓈𝑒'𝓈 𝓇𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓃𝓈.” ― 𝑀𝒶𝓌𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒶 𝒥𝒶𝓁𝒶𝓁-𝒶𝓁-𝒟𝒾𝓃 𝑅𝓊𝓂𝒾.
あたしは腐女子です。少女漫画、たくさん読んでください。

Quote from Bunny-chan

Quote from Crenshinibon

Quote from Bunny-chan

[quote]Well, admittedly gay cartoon porn is a twofer. It crosses two intellectual boundaries, so just from a general standpoint you can sort of see why Amazon would target it first.

But...really... is yaoi an acronym for YAma-nashi, Ochi-nashi, Imi-nashi, which roughly translates to "no climax, resolution, or meaning [lit. no rise, fall, or meaning]" Even the name is self-deprecating (although from an ironic standpoint partially untrue in English.) So... I don't know. From a marketing standpoint it makes sense aside from getting the ACLU up in arms, though it's a private corporation without a monopoly and with guidelines strictly embedded in contracts, so I doubt there'll be any successful legal action.

shrug. What do I care? The physical copies are unaffected... digital censorship is what it is.

BL doesn't really count as gay porn...

That's fair enough- that phrase was only directed at yaoi (which by its original definition exists solely for smut, and from a marketing lens is essentially the same as porn), it had nothing to do with shounen-ai.

You do realize shonen-ai is used nowadays to refer to paedophilic tendencies and shotacon, correct? BL is technically referring to all boy/boy romances (yes, there is porn too, but I wouldn't call it necessarily"gay porn" because I have seen homosexual pornography, and for me its a huge turn-off, well, if I think about it, gay porn is like the straight-porn for gay men... so, yeah, I don't really get it) for women and girls.

[/quote]

I'm just quoting from the phrasing used through the nineties, if the terminology differs slightly I apologize, but in principle you understood what I meant well enough.

That aside, yaoi would still be sexually explicit and would therefore equate to pornography- you may not like the comparison because the style is sufficiently different not to cross interests, but there really isn't a much better way to explain it from the perspective of an amazon exec. I'm not suggesting that anyone who enjoys yaoi would enjoy homosexual pornography, but if it's sexually explicit, that is what it boils down to, with some slight semantic differences.

[img]http://i604.photobucket.com/albums/tt122/Wthuh/CrenshiSig.jpg[/img]
Reviews of my Work:
You are kind of boring - Blackorion
Congratulations! Ur an asshole! - tokyo_homi
**Your awesome!!! **- Cherelle_Ashley
NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...

Quote from Crenshinibon

Quote from Bunny-chan

Quote from Crenshinibon

[quote=Bunny-chan][quote]Well, admittedly gay cartoon porn is a twofer. It crosses two intellectual boundaries, so just from a general standpoint you can sort of see why Amazon would target it first.

But...really... is yaoi an acronym for YAma-nashi, Ochi-nashi, Imi-nashi, which roughly translates to "no climax, resolution, or meaning [lit. no rise, fall, or meaning]" Even the name is self-deprecating (although from an ironic standpoint partially untrue in English.) So... I don't know. From a marketing standpoint it makes sense aside from getting the ACLU up in arms, though it's a private corporation without a monopoly and with guidelines strictly embedded in contracts, so I doubt there'll be any successful legal action.

shrug. What do I care? The physical copies are unaffected... digital censorship is what it is.

BL doesn't really count as gay porn...

That's fair enough- that phrase was only directed at yaoi (which by its original definition exists solely for smut, and from a marketing lens is essentially the same as porn), it had nothing to do with shounen-ai.

You do realize shonen-ai is used nowadays to refer to paedophilic tendencies and shotacon, correct? BL is technically referring to all boy/boy romances (yes, there is porn too, but I wouldn't call it necessarily"gay porn" because I have seen homosexual pornography, and for me its a huge turn-off, well, if I think about it, gay porn is like the straight-porn for gay men... so, yeah, I don't really get it) for women and girls.

[/quote]

I'm just quoting from the phrasing used through the nineties, if the terminology differs slightly I apologize, but in principle you understood what I meant well enough.

That aside, yaoi would still be sexually explicit and would therefore equate to pornography- you may not like the comparison because the style is sufficiently different not to cross interests, but there really isn't a much better way to explain it from the perspective of an amazon exec. I'm not suggesting that anyone who enjoys yaoi would enjoy homosexual pornography, but if it's sexually explicit, that is what it boils down to, with some slight semantic differences.[/quote]

Yes! Okay, I understand now. Yes, Sensitive Pornograph is labled as an adult womens' title (even in Japan), while some titles here are labled adult (josei in the redicomi category) titles (BL magazines like Be x Boy GOLD, Comic June, etc.) but were originally serialized in magazines for teenage girls (i.e., Dear+, Be x Boy, Asuka Ciel, Asuka Ciel Tres Tres etc.) But, there is a OEL artist born in Japan, (KUTSUWADA Chie if you must know) who delightfully refers to her work as"yaoi", but shrugs at the word "gay" (she mentions this in "the Mammoth Book of Best New Manga", which actually is quite common, I remember a report one time that a gay man confronted a professional BL mangaka (it was either KODAKA Kazuma or someone else) and she FREAKED.

I wouldn't freak, but I sure don't like the thought of a gay man saying things like "Oh, you are so great at drawing gay porn!"

How embarassing. 😲

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝓈𝑒'𝓈 𝓇𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓃𝓈.” ― 𝑀𝒶𝓌𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒶 𝒥𝒶𝓁𝒶𝓁-𝒶𝓁-𝒟𝒾𝓃 𝑅𝓊𝓂𝒾.
あたしは腐女子です。少女漫画、たくさん読んでください。

-sigh- I fear for the future of Yaoi...T.T Besides not all Yaoi are simply gay porn, there are many Yaoi manga that have really good story/plot and even contain one sex scene or very short sex scene.

Taiyou ni korosareta

Quote from meichells

Amazon has decided to remove all yaoi/hentai (or all porn or so they say) from their Kindle store. I think that's a good thing for them to do. Yaoi and hentai are things that no one should really be reading, or making, to begin with, so it makes sense that a store should not sell them... just because, on principle, it's the right thing to do. More stores should do the same.

Although, it should be done properly... as in, if they say they're going to stop selling something because it's pornography, they should stop selling all pornography. Likewise, if they stop selling something because it glorifies homosexuality, they should stop selling all things that do that (that would mean other genres like yuri, shounen ai, etc.). What I mean is, if you're going to take a stand against something, do it for real, not just half-way.

Manga Cover Database

What the heck, that's quite the double standards Kindle expresses there!

What is wrong with yaoi and hentai compared to pornography? Their actions infuriates me, and still I can't do much about it (though I won't buy a kindle now, it's poo anyways). 😐

I doubt that yaoi (and hentai for that matter) will die out, even though the genre encounters such massive opposition in many cases. There's still a big market for it, and where there's a demand there'll be supply (haha, even though it might turn underground someday if this keeps up).

Quote from lynira

Quote from meichells

Amazon has decided to remove all yaoi/hentai (or all porn or so they say) from their Kindle store. Good for them. Yaoi and hentai are things that no one should really be reading, or making, to begin with, so it makes sense that a store should not sell them... just because, on principle, it's the right thing to do. More stores should do the same.

Although, it should be done properly... as in, if they say they're going to stop selling something because it's pornography, they should stop selling all pornography. Likewise, if they stop selling something because it glorifies homosexuality, they should stop selling all things that do that (that would mean other genres like yuri, shounen ai, etc.). What I mean is, if you're going to take a stand against something, do it for real, not just half-way.

So you think all porn and mature material should be banned?! Do you seriously believe that that kind of material is wrong? I mean, we can't deny our nature, and sexuality is a big part of it. When you don't have a partner or just need a bit of outlet (so that you don't freaking rape someone), I'm pretty serious that these things keep us from turning into wild beasts mating with every living thing around the corner. Haha, even though that sounds a bit extreme.

I'm not one for Yaoi, thats for sure, nor do i feel the need to read hentai on a portable device, seems like a private thing to do, but this for sure isn't the right way to get people to buy the Kindle. Even if they are like me, they still may be offended by the bias portrayed here.

...