The "Clean Reader" app

[Rainytown]

It seems there's a couple from Idaho that have invented an app that strips obscenities or other objectionable content out of e-books before reading.

There are many, many things to say on the subject, but let's put it this way. I am an author. Anyone who uses the above app on any of my books can look forward to being sued by my publisher. It violates my copyright, and the copyright of thousands of authors who do not need to alter the contents of their books to please a subset of people who perhaps need to turn their attention to more important things in life.

It's HuffPo, so I hope it's acceptable to leave the link intact. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/0 ... 31570.html

[smittykins]

Here's an idea: if a book is objectionable to you, DON''T READ IT.

[Rainytown]

Here's an idea: if a book is objectionable to you, DON''T READ IT.

But...but...BUT how will they be able to tell all their friends they've read the book and it really isn't that good?

Certain people decided to censor Shakespeare, for God's sake. Do they have nothing better to do with their time?

[bookgirl14]

I'm scared to see the difference between a clean version and the "squeaky clean" version of a book. Are they trying to be like the woman who altered Harry Potter in her own fanfiction to make it appropriate for her children and it ended up being unrecognizable from the original?

[bookgirl14]

Here's an idea: if a book is objectionable to you, DON''T READ IT.

But that's too easy. And it would actually make sense so therefore fundies will not do it.

[doggie]

I can't imagine how the book will end up reading? abridged books are bad enough. the fear of bad words such a crazy christian life.

[ViolaSebastian]

I'm scared to see the difference between a clean version and the "squeaky clean" version of a book. Are they trying to be like the woman who altered Harry Potter in her own fanfiction to make it appropriate for her children and it ended up being unrecognizable from the original?

Yeah, my mind instantly flashed to all the books I've read that would be about one paragraph long if I read them through that app.

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

There was once a girl named Fanny Hill, who grew up poor in a small village. Sadly, when she was 15, her parents went to go be with the Lord. She moved to London, where she met a nice woman named Mrs. Brown, who helped Fanny make the acquaintance of many a young and fashionable male suitor. She also made a very special friend named Phoebe--that's a Biblical name, so you know she was a godly mentor for young Fanny. Fanny, Phoebe, and all her special friends liked to engage in sweet fellowship and tell each other exciting stories. Fanny became wildly wealthy through selling her handicrafts on etsy and buying used and saving the difference. She then met a godly young man named Charles and after a complicated courtship, they marry and have many precious blessings. The end.

[Marian the Librarian]

There is nothing new under the sun. Take a look at clearplay.com - strip all that juicy stuff out of your next movie!!

And, of course, people have been trying to censor books for as long as they've existed...sigh.

[Rachel333]

Haha, I wonder if Lady Bibliophile has found this yet. If I remember correctly, she uses white out on bad words in the books she reads.

[wildcatgrrl]

Blasphemy!

So I guess "50 Shades" would have three words? Ana, Christian, and Grey?

[thoughtful]

Yeah, my mind instantly flashed to all the books I've read that would be about one paragraph long if I read them through that app.

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

There was once a girl named Fanny

Might have to change that to Faith.

[doggie]

Haha, I wonder if Lady Bibliophile has found this yet. If I remember correctly, she uses white out on bad words in the books she reads.

after she reads those words of course

[acheronbeach]

I'm scared to see the difference between a clean version and the "squeaky clean" version of a book. Are they trying to be like the woman who altered Harry Potter in her own fanfiction to make it appropriate for her children and it ended up being unrecognizable from the original?

Hey, you leave "Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles" out of this...

Along with "Harry Potter Turns To the Lord" and "The New Girl On Voyager". *snort*

Can you tell I love shitty Christian fanfic?

[Cats B4 Quivers]

That app sounds depressing. I learned a lot of completely inappropriate sexual information that I then immediately shared with my friends when i was 13 to 15 years old. If my mom somehow managed to cleanse all of those books, my public service would never have happened. Just sad.

[bookgirl14]

Hey, you leave "Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles" out of this...

Along with "Harry Potter Turns To the Lord" and "The New Girl On Voyager". *snort*

Can you tell I love shitty Christian fanfic?

Wait, there's another Harry Potter fundie fanfic? This I gotta see.

[acheronbeach]

Wait, there's another Harry Potter fundie fanfic? This I gotta see.

Oh, there are lots of terrible fundiefics on ff.net.

The barely-literate moron who wrote THE NEW GIRL On Voyager also wrote a godawful HP fic, but she deleted it because of allthe flames (but didn't delete her various Christianized Disney/Star Trek fics).

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5102928/1/ ... o-the-Lord

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7089561/1/ ... on-Voyager

I also found a truly horrific fundie Frozen fanfic. I'll try and find it, I didn't save the link...

[KittenMitten]

Well. I think seeing JB dry humping Michelle on the miniature golf course could have used this app. But I'm a supporter of free speech, even if it makes me uncomfortable, and that scene of JB and Michelle icked me out. Also, I agree if the subject is uncomfortable, don't read it.

[bookgirl14]

Oh, there are lots of terrible fundiefics on ff.net.

The barely-literate moron who wrote THE NEW GIRL On Voyager also wrote a godawful HP fic, but she deleted it because of allthe flames (but didn't delete her various Christianized Disney/Star Trek fics).

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5102928/1/ ... o-the-Lord

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7089561/1/ ... on-Voyager

I also found a truly horrific fundie Frozen fanfic. I'll try and find it, I didn't save the link...

I just read HP turns to the Lord and I can't stop laughing. Demons were the reason Harry had nightmares for years and not Voldemort. :lol:

[ViolaSebastian]

Might have to change that to Faith.

It's just short for Frances, get your heathen mind out of the gutter. ;)

[MissA]

I'd bet money this app is no dang good at what it's supposed to do. At various points in my life I've been obliged to browse the internet using "safe" browser apps and have always found that they are completely worthless. As in they will filter words like "assumption" and "horsemen" and "breast cancer" but will allow flowery porn with "throbbing shafts" and so on as long as it doesn't use any commonly mentioned vulgar term for any of the body parts.

Not that I... look up porn that much or anything. Honest:) But a lot of deeply upsetting/vulgar/adult material does not contain anything that will trigger alarms on a find-and-replace word search.

[Trynn]

This reminds me of when we couldn't watch a movie in Christian school because the tv bad word censor thing kept censoring the word "god," and none of the teachers could figure out how to turn off the censor. He movie was just unwatchable and it was so stupid (though I do give my teachers credit; they tried to turn it off, they just weren't good with technology.)

[Firiel]

My parents had this for TV when I was growing up. Whenever a "bad" word was detected in the closed captioning, it muted the show momentarily and showed the caption with the bad word replaced with an acceptable one. My favorite moment was during a Corn Flakes commercial where the rooster crows and the closed captioning read, "JERK A DOODLE DOO."

That was how I found out that "cock" is a bad word and isn't just a term for a rooster.

[socalrules]

I remember years ago there was a company, I think in Utah, that would edit movies on video to take out all the bad words and naughty words. I believe that they were forced to shut down.

[Marian the Librarian]

I remember years ago there was a company, I think in Utah, that would edit movies on video to take out all the bad words and naughty words. I believe that they were forced to shut down.

Nope - it's called Clearplay.com. Check out their website! Lots of squeaky-clean looking folks there!

Regarding online filters: take it from this librarian, they're frustrating as hell. Just try helping the kid who's doing a science report on the bushtit (it's a bird...) using a filtered computer. :lol:

ETA: I stand corrected! There WAS a Utah-based company called CleanFlicks that is no longer in business. But Clearplay is alive and well. Wikipedia has articles about both. Live and learn!

[Peas n carrots]

A few years ago one one of the Christian news reporting sites an internal filter changed the name of the U.S. Olympic track star Tyson Gay's name to Tyson Homosexual. Many internets lulz ensued.