It’s not enough getting morality from religion, philosophy, peer pressure and law. Now business also wants to take the moral high ground.
Random House contractually requires young adult writers to behave. Cory Doctorow points out that they didn’t ask him to sign such a contract for Little Brother. This is probably because they realize just how badly he would react to that. Little Brother is, after all, the story of a fight for freedom.
Then there’s the case of Audacia Ray, who is basically a sexologist blogger. Citibank just told her that her money isn’t welcome any more, because she work in “Adult Business”. The slippery bastards tried to get her to keep her personal money in the bank, just not any of the money related to her business.
Who defines “Adult Business”? The bank does of course.
What really makes me suspicious is the abrupt manner in which her paid for blog Naked City was dropped by the Village Voice. Anyone want to take bets on who the Village Voice uses as a bank?
4 Comments
Thanks very much for the support… it’s been quite the week!
I’m just sorry I can’t do more.
i think this is a case of freedom of speech vs freedom of association.
apparently the bank thinks they’re exercising their freedom of association rights…
I will defend to the death their right to association, but I disagree with their reasons for doing so.
In addition I want to highlight Citibank’s greed in wanting to keep Audacia’s money, but not wanting to be associated with her business.
I want people to know about it so they can make an informed choice about supporting Citibank.
“Here is a bank who wants to impose arbitrary morals on their customers. Do you still want to support them? Or are you offended by their presumption to limit your freedoms?”
Think of it this way: Do they have policies against having convicted felons as customers? Do they refuse to be involved with weapons manufacture? How about cults like Scientology?
I bet you they don’t.
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