In less than two months, starting on February 2, 2009, a court case will begin in Iowa. The defendant, Christopher Handley, is facing as much as 20 years in prison for the charge against him. This is, as we say on the intarwebs: serious business. Twenty years? They must claim he did something really bad. Something really bad to someone, right?
Actually, he just ordered some manga from Japan. And...that's all he did.
Some of these manga contain images that are supposedly—according to the prosecutor—"obscene." But we'll put aside what kind of images they are claimed to be for the moment, because that isn't being decided anywhere but in this court case. And although we can debate it, there's no practical point in doing so here—because debating their content on ANN won't, and can't affect the outcome.
Maybe there are certain types of manga you'd never read or buy. Maybe you've got strong feelings about some kinds of manga, and you don't think they're right. In fact, you're pretty sure you don't even have anything like that in your collection.
CBLDF's United Defense Group team, led by Eric Chase, has successfully petitioned District Judge Gritzner to drop some of Handley's charges and rule parts of a controversial law unconstitutional. Handley was initially charged under the United States Code, which was amended by section 504 of the PROTECT Act to prohibit distribution or possession of "a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting," that —
• ‘(1)(A) depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and
• ’(B) is obscene; or
• '(2)(A) depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in graphic bestiality, sadistic or masochistic abuse, or sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; and
• '(B) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;
.......wow......I just spit coke out of my nose....
What a waste... :mrgreen:
Just what exactly...wh-why....it it, its just......wtf, LOLICON? holy CRAP. What ELSE do they draw in Japan? ...wait, I don't want to know...man...I have heard TOO much today.What a waste... :mrgreen:
What ELSE do they draw in Japan?
I don't care for anime, but I have to agree with Ikari here. Why is he even facing ANY charges, much less 20 years of jail time. I'd hate to see somebody actually get tentacle raped, because of some comic books.
- 20 Years in Prison for Buying a Manga - Anime News Network
Iowa Collector Charged for Allegedly Obscene Manga (Update 2) - Anime News Network
So basically there's this dude. He likes anime (who doesn't) and collects manga and such. I can relate, I do too. Ordered some stuff from Japan, Post Office inspector general opens it, thinks it's obscene. Police get a warrant and bust down his door. Now he faces up to 20 years for manga...
- 20 Years in Prison for Buying a Manga - Anime News Network
Iowa Collector Charged for Allegedly Obscene Manga (Update 2) - Anime News Network
So basically there's this dude. He likes anime (who doesn't) and collects manga and such. I can relate, I do too. Ordered some stuff from Japan, Post Office inspector general opens it, thinks it's obscene. Police get a warrant and bust down his door. Now he faces up to 20 years for manga. For those that may not know, manga is sorta like comic books. Now there's lots of strange things from Japan, including but not limited to lolicon. I don't know if that's what he had or not, but I don't understand how you get 20 years even if it is lolicon. It's drawn, there's no people involved, there's no rights violated, so how can there be a crime? I'm of the opinion that crime can only occur when rights are violated, or potentially so. The potentially so is going to have to be a case involving actual live people, not drawings. Drawings are drawings and nothing more. Hentai may be "obscene", but that's sorta the point. Like all porn really, and porn in general isn't banned.
I think this whole case to be absurd and an overstepping of the authority into the lives of the individual. Almost makes me wonder if I have anything considered "obscene". Or what the government really consideres "obscene". It seems to me that they made the definition loose enough so that they allowed themselves way too much freedom of movement. It's not right, and this law should definitely be stricken from the books.
Another case like this happened with a photographer named Jock Sturges. Also Henery Miller had to smuggle his first book into the US.
Well the Chinese banned Guns N Roses new album, because it had the title "democracy" in it. So its not like we're the only ones :2razz:
Axle Rose should be BANNED:2razz:
If the Post Office inspector did it without the recipient's permission, isn't this a case of violation of privacy? As far as I know Japan is not in the list of being a terrorist country or similar to open every package that comes from it.
Thanks for the explanation.He ordered the manga from Japan. Anything that comes into this country can be searched at random. And this time it came up with the manga books.
Japan has a lot of odd pornography laws which actually ended up encouraging this type of hentai. Still it's absurd and an overstepping of authority by the government to press charges in a case where there was no possibility of a person's rights being infringed upon.
For a while, it seemed like he was. I'm not worried though, his new album was such a disappointment, I am sure he'll throw another 15 year hissy fit.
But their game shows are acceptable?
Where does Japan get off calling anything obscene?
- 20 Years in Prison for Buying a Manga - Anime News Network
Iowa Collector Charged for Allegedly Obscene Manga (Update 2) - Anime News Network
So basically there's this dude. He likes anime (who doesn't) and collects manga and such. I can relate, I do too. Ordered some stuff from Japan, Post Office inspector general opens it, thinks it's obscene. Police get a warrant and bust down his door. Now he faces up to 20 years for manga. For those that may not know, manga is sorta like comic books. Now there's lots of strange things from Japan, including but not limited to lolicon. I don't know if that's what he had or not, but I don't understand how you get 20 years even if it is lolicon. It's drawn, there's no people involved, there's no rights violated, so how can there be a crime? I'm of the opinion that crime can only occur when rights are violated, or potentially so. The potentially so is going to have to be a case involving actual live people, not drawings. Drawings are drawings and nothing more. Hentai may be "obscene", but that's sorta the point. Like all porn really, and porn in general isn't banned.
I think this whole case to be absurd and an overstepping of the authority into the lives of the individual. Almost makes me wonder if I have anything considered "obscene". Or what the government really consideres "obscene". It seems to me that they made the definition loose enough so that they allowed themselves way too much freedom of movement. It's not right, and this law should definitely be stricken from the books.
I'm not sure why everyone is so up in arms over this at this point. He faces up to 20 years if found guilty. The case hasn't even happened yet, so he hasn't even been found guilty.
We don't know all the facts of the case yet, and we don't know the situation fully.
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