My, my, sometimes nothing sums up a situation, emotion, or feeling, like a good old fashioned f-word. I’m no stranger to throwing in some profanity into blog posts and stories; these wicked little words are part of our language and culture and they serve a purpose. 

It appears that an app called Clean Reader allows readers to replace/hide all profanity in books. And they’re not calling it what it is: censorship and copyright infringement. Text is changed/edited without the author’s consent. 

I first heard about this over at Chuck Wendig’s site, who wrote a fantastic commentary about this growing issue and I urge you to check it out. I also encourage you to read an email that author Joanne Harris received from Clean Reader and her stellar response. 

Regardless of how you feel about profanity, is it right for anyone to alter someone’s book? Fuck no.

UPDATE: I should note that Clean Reader only allows readers to change words/text after they’ve purchased the book and are reading it on their own private devices. Sure, anyone can do anything to a book after it’s purchased, and according to Clean Readers, they’ve consulted with a gaggle of attorneys to ensure copyrights are not infringed upon, but something about this still irks me. There’s also a rumor floating around that the developers of Clean Reader are reselling “scrubbed up” versions of books . . . it’s worth investigating.

Here’s another take on the issue I recommend checking out.