4 ms·
> A book is just ideas that have been written down. So are safety labels which attempt to minimize product liability. So say I sell a chainsaw with safety lab
by will_brown 8y ago
> A book is just ideas that have been written down.
So are safety labels which attempt to minimize product liability.
So say I sell a chainsaw with safety labels that say to hold the chain and not the handle when starting the thing...could I be liable if someone is injured holding the chain? I mean the chainsaw was a perfectly safe product, as far as chainsaws go, it was only the following of my written down ideas that got someone injured.
I know exactly what you are saying and there is some case Law on point (a case involving a wild mushroom picking book and the plaintiff relying on the book and getting sick as a result). It’s one thing for the author to take that risk but it’s a whole other animal to force amazon to take that risk when they didn’t want to carry the book to begin with.
- sverige 8y agoI'm not arguing that Amazon should be forced to sell these books. I'm arguing that the original argument above which used product liability for selling poisons to argue in favor of stopping the publication of books is inappropriate. Products and ideas are two different things. Frankly, it's frightening that such a basic point has to be argued at all. To the larger points about "censorship" being made here, for me it's not so much to do with the government banning books or corporations refusing to sell books. It's that there is so much fervor on so many fronts to prevent ideas from being presented at all. Bad ideas will ultimately be discarded if there is open and free discussion because they will be shown to be weak and wrong. Suppressing discussion is the tactic of those who are afraid their ideas won't win in a free marketplace.