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Another eBookAd mystery–and a censorship question
August 3, 2005 | 2:51 pm
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By David Rothman
Is PayPal freezing the accounts of e-book authors, publishers and distributors of erotic material? And is eBookAd targeted–as an anti-PayPal site claims? Dustin Revin, head of eBookAd, vehemently denies this is happening to his company and says its relations with PayPal are excellent. Erotic books are just part of eBookAd’s offerings but are considered riskier than others from a PayPal perspective.
What about other distibutors, publishers, etc., who also use PayPal? Is this a larger censorship issue? Should PayPal be Big Bro? Anyone with direct info to report?
I have a call in to eBay–PayPal‘s owner–and hopefully can get some answers about the accusation as well as about an unrelated matter, the continued sales of illegal Harry Potter books on eBay. Meanwhile, because Dustin is so vehement in denying the anti-PayPal site’s accusations against eBay in regard to his company, I’ve zapped details posted here previously. Let’s see what eBay has to say, a point I made earlier. On another topic, Dustin said that a customer complaining about a supposedly undelivered paper book actually had bought an e-book. Still, it would be classy if eBookAd came through with a refund.
Dustin would not reply to complaints from publishers that he isn’t paying them despite past promises. He said he would deal with them one by one. I myself would prefer a public disclosure of eBookAd’s finances, but recognize this is a privately held company. I’m rooting for eBookAd to survive. Very possibly, no other company in the e-book business has a more publisher-friendly infrastructure than eBookAd does. Best of luck, Dustin! The publishers, despite their frustrations, are saying the same.
If you wish to comment on eBookAd, (1) do your best to be factual and fair to Dustin and (2) post your thoughts in a designated location.
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Comments:
David,
Just wanted to let you know that I ended up filing a complaint with the IFCC. I felt badly doing so, but in light of the fact that Dustin Reyes has not contacted me, despite my repeated attempts to find out the status of my checks, I had no other choice.
Hopefully other authors will not have to file a complaint and all of this will be sorted out soon.
Thanks for providing a forum for us to speak openly about this issue.
Melysha
P.S. My book isn’t an erotic title, so even if those reports WERE true, it wouldn’t apply to my title.
So people know, the IFCC is the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. What a shame that Dustin apparently has not responded to Melysha. I remain sad and baffled that it has come to this.
Meanwhile PayPal prefers not to comment on the post above in the main part of the TeleBlog, other than to say that third-party sites like the anti-PayPal one should not be trusted. Duh. Regardless, word is getting around the Net, and I’ve made clear that I do not take as gospel what the anti-PayPal site said. I did remind the PayPal lady that eBookAd counts in the e-book business and that I hope Dustin will get some slack. Even his rivals should root for eBookAd to thrive. The present crisis does not reflect well on the e-book business.