* I’d love to hear more about the specifics if only to determine how best to fight back, but this report of a man named Christopher Handley being prosecuted for the possession of obscene manga is as chilling as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s involvement on his behalf is welcome. Extra disturbing: Handley was literally followed home from the post office by law enforcement after picking up the books in question, which allegedly depict sexual activity involving minors. I have a pretty brightline approach to this particular area–if it’s not an actual photograph it shouldn’t be illegal to possess–and I hope this outlook is upheld.
* Bruce Baugh’s Shift-T is a new blog dedicated to chronicling Bruce’s experiences playing World of Warcraft. I’ve already waxed rhapsodic about why he’s worth reading on this subject even if (like me) you don’t play WoW–why he’s worth reading if the only things you have in common with him is indulging in a hobby, any hobby, and having some desire to think about what you get out of that hobby. But if you’re not sold on those high-falutin’ grounds, he does post on why it’s fun to go into battle with an angry gorilla by your side.
*The minicomics clearinghouse known as Global Hobo has relaunced under new management with a new blog and some of the great USS Catastrophe site’s backstock. (Via Tom Spurgeon.)
* Heroes loses AICN’s Hercules. This is like when Cronkite declared Vietnam unwinnable.
* My pal Rickey Purdin’s Octoberfest of horror sketches is getting more and more fun:
Altcomix fans, can you identify the unfortunate soul in that last illo?
* An exclusive, limited-edition Marc Bell book? Drawn & Quarterly people, you’ve got my mailing address, right?
* I’m not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but the decidedly post-apocalyptic treatment given to Venom in the new video game Spider-Man: League of Shadows looks like imaginative fun if this trailer is any indication. It also occurs to me now that superhero-comic-based video games have been a pretty conservative lot in terms of their plotlines, as best I can tell, but the medium lends itself just as readily to more expansive, quasi-Elseworlds narratives like this one.
* ZOMG LIBRARY PR0N (via everyone):
* If you’d like to feel your own sanity slip a bit, read the repeated pleas of a U.S. military officer on behalf of a captive American citizen and “illegal enemy combatant” who literally was being driven insane by his treatment in a Navy brig in Charleston. (Via Andrew Sullivan.)
* Finally, I repeat, Chinese Fucking Democracy.
1) Skeets?
2) I’m Fucking Skeptical.
I’ll believe it when I hear it.
that Christopher Handley case is insane! followed from the post office. WOW. they must have been desperate to catch someone. on the next To Catch A Manga Reader…
Legally speaking, non-photographic representations of supposedly under-aged children (the issue of how a drawing can be said to legally have an age aside) are legitimately considered child pornography under US law. Under the national current laws, ANY ILLUSTRATION deemed obscene and involving the depiction of minors is properly considered kiddie porn. Whether the depiction of acts is photographic in nature or not is, from the standpoint of the law, irrelevant.
The Supreme Court struck down overreaching anti-CP laws in the late 1990s, but it is widely considered that the current law, passed in ’03, will easily past constitutional muster as it was created to answer the Supreme Court’s objections.
Handley and the CBDL are, from a legal standpoint, in the wrong here.
I still wish Handley luck – but I think he’s screwed.
Is that law in fact in effect? I really thought it had been struck down someplace.
A similar law was struck down in the late 1990s because it didn’t take into account the Miller test for obscenity – the three part test that the CBDL mentions in their press release.
The new law, the PROTECT Act, is the struck down law version 2.0 and it takes into account the Miller test. It was passed by Congress and is in effect.
Though, on thinking about it last night, I was thinking that Handley and the CBDL may actually have a good case that has nothing to do with the Constitutional right to free speech.
The PROTECT Act requires that the material be deemed obscene before it can be counted as kiddie porn. For that to happen, the jury has to find the material meets all three criteria in the Miller test. If the CBDL can prove there’s some social, artistic, or scientific merit, then Handley’s off the hook without challenging the law’s Constitutional standing.
I may have been overly pessimistic before.
Protect Act aside, is it possible that Handley didn’t KNOW this questionable material was even in the books? that’s what gets me. it’s not like he was in a shop, browsing through books before he picked these out and bought them and then they arrested him. he ordered them from overseas.
so if i order something not knowing it may contain some questionable material, am i potentially to be arrested for ordering something i didn’t see fully beforehand?
ALSO… “That package was intercepted by the Postal Inspector, who applied for a search warrant after determining that the package contained cartoon images of objectionable content”
how on EARTH can you LOOK at a package and determine that it contains cartoon images of objectionable content? i mean, was the penmanship on the shipping label sloppy? was it wrapped using pages of Playboy? i just don’t understand!!
Wow.
Guess what I’m wrapping this year’s Christmas presents in. Go on, guess.
Re: Chinese Democracy, would even Axl lie to a big-box retailer
Repeat Bookmarks
Bookmarked your page with keywords repeat!