An Iowa manga enthusiast has been charged with possession of obscene materials, based on the allegation that of his collection of over a thousand volumes, a handful depict under-age participants; he faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years if convicted under the PROTECT Act.
A free speech legal defence fund, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, has leapt to his defence, claiming the law is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment rights Americans enjoy to free speech; the CBLDF is scathing:
“The government is prosecuting a private collector for the possession of art. In the past, CBLDF has had to defend the First Amendment rights of retailers and artists, but never before have we experienced the federal government attempting to strip a citizen of his freedom because he owned comic books.”
The CBLDF is most unhappy about the assault on freedom of expression, and is now also concerned that the move represents an unprecedented extension in scope of a law previously targeting chiefly dealers of pornography:
“In the lengthy time in which I have represented CBLDF and its clients, I have never encountered a situation where criminal prosecution was brought against a private consumer for possession of material for personal use in his own home.
This prosecution has profound implications in limiting the First Amendment for art and artists, and comics in particular that are on the cutting edge of creativity. It misunderstands the nature of avant-garde art in its historical perspective and is a perversion of anti-obscenity laws.”
The PROTECT Act being used as a basis for the charges has already taken a beating in courts, with portions being ruled unconstitutional, but sections still retain validity.
In particular, for a guilty verdict to be rendered the jury will have to decide that the material concerned is “obscene”, which involves applying the so-called Miller test to allow the material to be stripped of First Amendment protection:
• Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.
• Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law.
• Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. (This is also known as the (S)LAPS test- [Serious] Literary, Artistic, Political, Scientific).
In the past, application of these criteria has proven complex and highly controversial, so it remains to be seen what kind of decision the manga in question will prompt.
The PROTECT Act, an act containing a diverse jumble of “child protection” measures, itself has been the subject of much legal action, and it is still not clear to what extent it maintains the ability to target artistic or “virtual” material depicting under-age participants.
We do not hear how the unfortunate individual in question came to the attention of authorities.
Via ICV2.
Another dangerous comic book enthusiast kept off the streets?
This nation is so screwed up. They allow homosexuality and prostitution to run free in this country. Beastality aka Furry is deemed weird but “okay”. This nation constantly pumps up females to wear barely nothing but men wear clothes down to their feet. BDSM runs rapid everywhere and the porn industry makes a living off lonely men that cheat off their gf’s/wives.
But now this absurd attack on fictional literature is beyond ridiculous. Even more-so they want to penalize people with crimes for a cartoon character. People are being deemed as criminals for a simple non-exsistant character drawn with pencil and paper. Congratulations, America wants to persecute YOU the average anime otaku for imaginary people. They view you, otaku on the same level as a sick f♥♥k.
This will affect many comedies, slap-stick jokes and other varities. People will not be able to even create hip meme’s without them being considered crimes. Classic literature that existed would be removed. Figurines would no longer be in production.
America is no longer treating the innocent as innocent, but as guilty as charged. These majority otaku are not criminals but are average fans who like different culture. Just as the fan who likes comic-book or the fan who likes video-games.
By all means America should shut-down every single video-game on the market (especially all the M-Rated games) with the tatics that are being posed upon anime as they tried with GTA.
If prudes get their way you can kiss all anime goodbye. If a show or manga even gives the slightest hint of fanservice it would be deemed illegal and otakus thrown in prison.
Don’t allow this country based upon freedom to have freedom taken away from the rights of expression from its individuals.
Furry =/= b♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥y.
Feral Furry is nearly b♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥y, but that’s a tangential argument.
#Sigh#
Anime people you may find yourselves soon in a hole if you don’t stand up for your rights. You will find many animes pulled off the shelves/videos that violate your freedom of expressions and imprisonment for shows as simple as Chobits.
Do not understand a nation who wants to force homosexuality down everyone’s throats and call it ‘homophobic’ or ‘intolerant’ where they have homosexual sensitivity classes they force people to attend.
Yet at the same time a fictional shows or mangas are being potrayed as tools of destruction enough that they want to send people to prison for it. For a paper and pencil drawings.
Classic literature will be affected. Current anime shows will be affected and deemed illegal for simple fan-service which would render Strike-Witches illegal. Figurines would be illegal.
If you don’t stand up for your rights you will all be treated as criminals. Don’t allow fictional artworks to be destroyed by biggots and haters of freedom of expression.
you Know my Q: same as the first how did he get caught
absolutely ridiculous, making a law against lolicon is completely wrong, the government is overstepping their bounds on this one, but …I wonder, would putting a disclaimer saying “all persons depicted in this video (or manga or image or whatever) are 18+” make it pointless to ban it anyway
the true danger of these insane persecutions (if there is not more to these stories)Is to the taxpayers. Once the right team of lawyers correlates the damages wrought to the defendant to the systematic training of the defendant to a predisposition to such media the system intended to defend actual minors will be ridiculed and sued.
I was forced to sit in a school classroom for the majority of my days as a developing male in this country. My sexually formulative years were spent observing the forms of my teachers and classmates.
The very essence of sexuality was programed as baseline in my teens to the ideals of beauty and sexuality.
From B.B.W. to a petite gymnast,to a teddybear like furry, the human form plays a healthy roll in fantasy imaginings for the sake of self gratification, or as foreplay for consenting adults.
Childhood is sacred and we must all perservere to protect children at all costs. Including protecting their liberties when they become adults.