A book defending and providing guidelines for pedophiles sparked outrage this week and prompted thousands to demand that Amazon stop selling it.
Although their guidelines say that they can remove any book that can lead to illegal activity, Amazon initially said that they do not support censorship of any book, even if they find the content offensive.
- “It is the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.”
A few thousand angry comments and a couple of Facebook pages later, they heard their customers loud and clear; the book was pulled Wednesday.
The question remains as to whether or not books about objectionable actions can encourage people to take those actions.
Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors was published in 1983. The book was a how-to guide to murder for hire. Ten years later, a man killed three people and claimed to have used the book as his guide.
He was sentenced to death but the victims’ families were outraged that the book was ever sold.
The court found that the book was not protected by the free speech/press clause of the First Amendment and that the publisher could be liable for triple murder.
Although the publisher was forced to destroy any remaining copies as part of the settlement, the book can be found online. It was cited as a resource by a killer in another case just a few years later.
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