NEWS: Paypal anti-Erotica

veingloree

I don't know how many of you trade via paypal but increasingly erotica markets are having trouble with it. This includes some pretty literary and respectable outfits and products depicting nudes but with no strong sexual situations.

So if any of you sell via paypal it may pay to set up options with other vendors like ikobo or paymate. I am note sure how it works if you freelance and are paid via this method by the market, but guilt by association does seem to be a problem with this service as all of a users accounts are frozen if any of them is associated with erotic products.

see:

www.cleansheets.com/new_b...xnew.shtml
"Please note that we no longer use Paypal, specifically because Paypal decided that we sell "obscene" items (erotic books!), and it is against their corporate policy to support sites that do so."

www.lambdabusiness.com/st...d=1&ID=238
"Belhue Press, the publisher of books by author Perry Brass, was sent an email from PayPal.com that the press' account with PayPal, which is used to process orders from www.perrybrass.com, had been closed. The email, included in a recent press release from Belhue, stated:... "
 

nolabohemian

Even though I use paypal shopping cart on my website, they won't list my store in the paypal shops because I have greeting cards with curse words on them and ones that deal with humorous "adult situations." They are a little more strict in real life than their appropriate use code lays out.
 

veingloree

it gets worse, from Reuters:


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - PayPal, the online payments arm of eBay Inc. (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , on Friday said it will soon fine people up to $500 for uses related to gambling, adult content or services, and buying or selling prescription drugs from noncertified sellers.

The new policy, which takes effect Sept. 24 and applies to both buyers and sellers, marks the first time PayPal has imposed fines for violations of its use policy, spokeswoman Amanda Pires said.
 

veingloree

I have written to the second biggest e-money distributor Ikobo.com to ask what their policy on legal but adult material is -- I will let you know what they say.
 

Maryn

Fine with me... (that's a joke)

Since when do private businesses have the right, much less the might, to issue fines? I'm no lawyer, but PayPal fining people for using their service in ways they prohibit seems ludicrous on its face, particularly in the absence of any written and signed contract.

Yeah, they've got your credit card numbers and could 'fine' you by making a charge payable to themselves, but I would guess that the first person to fight that in court would stand an excellent chance of winning.

Not that I'm volunteering!
 

Writing Again

Re: Fine with me... (that's a joke)

I don't have the addys, but anti paypal websites have been around for a while, I've seen a few.
 

brainstorm77

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Is this still their policy? I bumped this when the link to this thread was given in another in GLBT. I'm interested to know if anythings changed.
 
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ELMontague

Guys,

I've asked Veinglory to clarify whether this is her. I don't see why the post came through as veingloree.

EL
 
firedrake

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the thread is ancient.

2004 :Wha:
 

Deleted member 42

ELMontague said:
Guys,

I've asked Veinglory to clarify whether this is her. I don't see why the post came through as veingloree.

EL
Click to expand...

Long ago, the AW Water Cooler used a discussion forum software called Easy Board; the board wasn't perfectly converted to the new software, vBulletin, in terms of maintaining user IDs.

This is in fact Veinglory, and she's the one who linked to her old pre-vBulletin post.
 
thothguard51

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So does anyone know the answer about pay-pal? I heard Elora's cave and Champagne Books use pay-pal accounts and I think there would be an outcry if authors were not getting their payments or fines.
 
Synonym

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They must have relaxed their standards somewhat since this post was started. If you know the convoluted path, you can find lots of questionable items on eBay that would have run against the original post.

If I remember right, eBay purchased PayPal a few years ago. That might be why things are 'less strict' now.
 
Captcha

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I know that Dreamwidth, an LJ-style blogging system (I'm not sure if any of those words is precisely right) ran into a problem where paypal wouldn't work with them because some of the content of their blogs was erotica/adult oriented.

One of the explanations that was offered in comments, rather than the actual announcement, was that adult sites are especially prone to a high rate of charge backs from credit cards, making the transaction too expensive for paypal (or google checkout, apparently) to bother with. I have no idea if any of that is true, and I have no idea why a company would decide to eliminate a viable revenue stream rather than take extra steps to ensure the security of their accounts, but I'd rather believe that than believe that they're trying to impose some sort of morality and have chosen to start with erotica sites rather than gun sales or any of the other things that they deal with that, in my opinion, pose a much greater threat to society.

Some links to the Dreamwidth announcements, in case anyone's interested:

http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/16590.html
http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/17858.html
http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/17858.html

ETA: This has all been happening in the last few months, so, no, it doesn't seem like paypal has changed its stance completely.
 
nkkingston

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They managed to find and finalise a new payment system at the beginning of April.

I can't believe so many companies decided not to distinguish between a site that hosts legal adult material and a pay-per-view porn site. I fully support Paypal's right to decide who it does and does not deal with according to its own guidelines, but I don't think they've ever really considered the shades of grey involved in something like this. After all, you have to be an adult to use Paypal in the first place, so why should they cave so quickly to groups of "concerned parents"?
 

Christine Kirchoff

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I use Paypal. Haven't had a problem and I've been getting paid for my erotic stories for months now.
 
nkkingston

nkkingston

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I use Paypal. Haven't had a problem and I've been getting paid for my erotic stories for months now.
Click to expand...

Ahh, but do paypal know that's what it's being used for? They don't personally check everything, but they do react to reports (sadly, often vendetta reports). You might want to keep an eye out on alternative payment methods, just in case.
 

staceytg

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I wonder if you could use ejunkie as a middle man and have it put into your paypal from them. Then they would really never know, would they?

The only thing that uses paypal on my site, as of right now, is the sponsor a story buttons. I've had them forever and never had an issue. Guess I'll just wait and see.
 
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