Paypal vs Online Bookstores

According to Xbiz, PayPal retracted its threat to close the accounts of online booksellers who sell works that could be considered obscene. Last month, PayPal delivered an ultimatum to online booksellers and distributors, including Smashwords, BookStrand.com and eXcessica, giving them just days to remove all erotic books. Over 1,000 e-books were removed from the Smashwords site before PayPal agreed to postpone a final decision on cutting off payments.

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) joined the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) in writing a protest letter to eBay, the owner of PayPal.

In a statement posted on its website today, PayPal announced that in the future it will not reject e-books that consist only of text.