In response to your article "Klausen's cartoon book exceeded the bounds of freedom of speech"?(Forum, Sept. 15): Censorship in its true form is really only the action of a government. The choice not to depict the cartoons is a mutual decision by publisher and author. Obviously, the weight of the decision comes overwhelmingly from the publisher, but the book, with or without the cartoons, belongs to the author. The cartoons appeared in a nation of just over 5 million people, fewer than reside in Massachusetts, and I imagine not many more speak Danish, yet these cartoons inspired craziness and death worldwide. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic tract long ago exposed as a fraud, are produced in the millions of copies year in and year out in many languages, though Arabic and English are probably the most popular, and are even endorsed by leaders of many Arab and Muslim states and yet do not evoke any violence or killing.

Being offended or having your feelings hurt are not suffient grounds for violence and neither Yale nor Brandeis nor Dr. Klausen should have to make a decision about an academic publication over fear of violence or terrorism. I've never known of an academic book to sell millions of copies for decades, if not a century.

-Robert Brennan

The writer is a data analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health.