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Child porn panic claims another victim

This isn't even so unusual anymore: high school students exchanging naked pictures of themselves, school administrators concerned, one saves a picture as evidence, the picture isn't actually pornographic even by Loudoun County standards, but OMG HE'S POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY!!!!, zero-tolerance, life ruined. Note that Loudoun County is the same place where they had the filtering software lawsuit in 1998; as one of the smarter commentators on the Wired article points out, if you're going to subject children to that kind of repression, what do you expect them to do a few years later when they're young adults? This kind of disaster is inevitable as long as we think it's a good idea to ban the mere possession of speech. Freedom of expression must be absolute. See also my comments from a few years ago on Nymphet and instigation, which I'd been meaning to move to my new site code and now looks like the right time. As I said then, if we treat the normal sexual behaviour of human beings - which absolutely starts at an age well under 18 - as a frightening aberration, then we guarantee that we will be frightened pretty often.

(8 April 2009)

Nova Scotia man convicted of child pornography on shotacon anime possession

Here's a small item (scroll down - the page has several different stories on it) from the Halifax Chronicle Herald about a man in Nova Scotia pleading guilty to child pornography charges for possession of materials that included shotacon anime. I'll post links to better coverage if I find them. It's not a pure banned-anime case, in that he apparently also had materials featuring real children; anime fans often cite "But I don't have any real child porn" as a Get Out Of Jail Free card and this case doesn't directly contradict that. But I don't think any reasonable argument can be made that the Canadian authorities will leave you alone just because you don't have any pictures of real children. I hear that Dwight Whorley's conviction in the USA has been upheld, too - though some appeals still remain - so being in the USA isn't Get Out Of Jail Free card either. The statutes and prosecutors' interpretations thereof in both places are pretty clearly intended to cover purely fictional material.

(21 February 2009)

The terrible secret of Livejournal

I'm hearing another round of rumours about Six Apart, the company that runs Livejournal, and its deletion of Livejournal users.  It sounds like they've changed their code to make it less obvious when a user has been deleted (by hiding usernames or something, instead of showing them in strikethrough), and they're continuing to not follow their stated policies of issuing warnings and conducting reviews and so on.  The fandom community is up in arms, and the current situation is seen as an example of Six Apart not sticking to the promises it made last time there was a round of deletions.  I think the time has come for me to reveal the terrible secret of Livejournal - the one big issue behind this situation, that neither side wants to admit even to themselves.  Because of this one big issue, I think that fandom is making unreasonable demands of Livejournal.  This is a sort of open letter or reality check for the fandom community:  you can't expect Six Apart to give you what you're demanding, and you need to recognize why. (9 August 2007)

On Kodomo no Jikan and instigation

A great deal has already been said about Seven Seas and Kodomo no Jikan/Nymphet. People who want to know about that stuff already do. There is just one thing relating to that mess that I'd like to comment on here; it concerns a point in Jason DeAngelis's first public statement on the subject. He has since retracted some of the statement, but the principle illustrated is more general than just this one incident.

(31 May 2007)

Edmonton Journal scales new heights of cluelessness on lolicon story

Okay, some time ago I reported on the arrest of a man in Edmonton for attempting to import what would be best described as hard-core lolicon manga (details below). Now, it's being reported (Anime News Network article, Edmonton Sun article) that he's received an 18-month conditional sentence, community service, and a fine.

(22 October 2005)

R. v. Beattie: stories illegal because the kids enjoyed it

This is a frightening decision (PDF here, recommended if you can read it because the quotations aren't properly marked up in the HTML) from the Ontario Court of Appeal in April of 2005. I found out about it while reading contemporaneous Justice Committee evidence (and my comments on that evidence were delayed, because this is more important). You must read this case. I'll say it again, you must read this case, even the disgusting quotes. It's important.

(16 June 2005)

20 exceptions to prove C-20

How the Canadian Government's absurd child pornography law forces courts to unravel arbitrarily complex fictional plots. (25 January 2003)