I was going to write something on this but Joanne Harris says it better. I would like Clean Reader to know that I feel exactly the way she does and I will support any legal action against this product on the grounds of copyright infringement. Because altering what is read, is altering the content of the book. I don't give a damn if the ebook's file content is unchanged, or if the file is unmarred. Who cares about that? You are displaying words I did not write inside the context of my work, to the reader of my novel - while making a profit off this editing of my work. That is illegal. It misrepresents my intention, my meaning and my beliefs. That is libel, and also illegal
Here is Jonne's Take..
An e-mail from Clean Reader
After my blog post the other day, I got this e-mail from the official Clean Reader site. Rather than give out e-mail addresses and identities, I’m copying and posting it here, along with my reply.
Dear Joanne,
I wanted to reach out to you given your recent comments regarding Clean Reader. I want to reassure you we are not selling edited copies of your books. The books we offer are word-for-word the exact same as how you wrote them. And if it wasn’t clear, our unique “Clean Reader” function can be turned OFF with the click of a button if the reader decides they don’t want/need any of the words hidden.
Our initial release of this app has stirred up WAY more emotion than we ever anticipated. We are certainly not interested in engaging in a battle with authors. We respect your talents and rights to write whatever you feel compelled to write. You should use whichever words you feel are best suited for the character, situation, naration, etc. Our hope is to simply provide a tool for some people to use who love great books but are equally opposed to reading profanity. Many of the people who we’ve heard from that are using Clean Reader say they’re willing to miss out on a little bit of context in order to avoid reading some profanity. Ideally our app will open the door to more readers/customers to consume a more diverse selection of books.
If you have any constructive ideas of changes you’d reccomend to our app that would make it less offensive to you as an author please feel free to send them to me and we’ll certainly consider working them into a future release of the app.
Highest regards,
J…..
I wanted to reach out to you given your recent comments regarding Clean Reader. I want to reassure you we are not selling edited copies of your books. The books we offer are word-for-word the exact same as how you wrote them. And if it wasn’t clear, our unique “Clean Reader” function can be turned OFF with the click of a button if the reader decides they don’t want/need any of the words hidden.
Our initial release of this app has stirred up WAY more emotion than we ever anticipated. We are certainly not interested in engaging in a battle with authors. We respect your talents and rights to write whatever you feel compelled to write. You should use whichever words you feel are best suited for the character, situation, naration, etc. Our hope is to simply provide a tool for some people to use who love great books but are equally opposed to reading profanity. Many of the people who we’ve heard from that are using Clean Reader say they’re willing to miss out on a little bit of context in order to avoid reading some profanity. Ideally our app will open the door to more readers/customers to consume a more diverse selection of books.
If you have any constructive ideas of changes you’d reccomend to our app that would make it less offensive to you as an author please feel free to send them to me and we’ll certainly consider working them into a future release of the app.
Highest regards,
J…..
Dear J….
Thank you for your mail.I appreciate your attempt to involve authors in the debate, and wish I could be more conciliatory. However, my objections to Clean Reader go far beyond whether or not my work is being edited, or my copyright infringed.If you have read my blog post, you’ll see that my problems with this app are threefold.
Thank you for your mail.I appreciate your attempt to involve authors in the debate, and wish I could be more conciliatory. However, my objections to Clean Reader go far beyond whether or not my work is being edited, or my copyright infringed.If you have read my blog post, you’ll see that my problems with this app are threefold.
1. Artistic: Writers of fiction choose their words (including what you refer to as profanities) very carefully. We generally don’t write “for context”, but to create an effect. By allowing words to be replaced or blanked out, this effect is reduced to a clumsy translation, or negated completely. To enable a writer’s work to be modified without permission, then for you claim that nothing much has been altered, is to completely misunderstand the nature of fiction writing. Worse still, you are enabling us to be judged and misrepresented on the basis of words that your app has put into our mouths.
Read the rest on Joanne's Blog -->
Read the rest on Joanne's Blog -->
