Published 13 April 200914 April 2009 · Main Posts Amazon sex police Jeff Sparrow Amazon.com has apparently decided to protect its readers from themselves by removing any titles it considered ‘adult’ from its sales rankings, thus making them impossible to uncover through normal searchings. Funnily enough, this outbreak of Grundyism wipes out most of the titles aimed at a gay and lesbian readership. More than that, Amazon now hides GLBT titles but allows homophobic ones — you can’t search for Brokeback Mountain but you can find A Parent’s Guide To Preventing Homosexuality. There’s more info here. The reaction throughought blogosphere seems to be sufficiently intense that Amazon might have to reconsider. But this shabby little episode raises broader questions about the role of monopolies in the industry. Amazon hopes that its Kindle will become the standard platform for electrionic books. Think about the kind of power it will have over publishers. Would you trust them with it? Um… maybe not so much. [Update: Amazon seems to be blaming a software glitch. There’s also suggestions a hacker might be involved. The whole thing seems very weird.] Jeff Sparrow Jeff Sparrow is a Walkley Award-winning writer, broadcaster and former editor of Overland. More by Jeff Sparrow › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 28 March 202428 March 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. First published in Overland Issue 228 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.