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NEWS: Prosecution Drops Charges in Canadian Manga Child Porn Case

Toriko36 wrote:

I've also wondered how exactly they got him to open his computer and allow them to go through it. Was it on his desktop background? If it was stored in a file somewhere on his pc, I find it very hard to believe they took all that time to open one computer and go through it. Why was he picked out of the customs line, searched and ultimately have his computer searched. Is there somewhere we can read the whole case and all the why/how/who/what/where details?

Canadian Customs is, for any reason at all, allowed to look through any electronic devices you bring into the country and take a copy of its contents. You can take a look here to see the latest information on what the CBSA are capable of (based off the latest public information that was obtainable). Yes, there had to be something that tipped them off but, the moment you get pulled aside for a closer inspection, you lose a lot of rights.

Bastille wrote:

Toriko36 wrote: I've also wondered how exactly they got him to open his computer and allow them to go through it. Was it on his desktop background? If it was stored in a file somewhere on his pc, I find it very hard to believe they took all that time to open one computer and go through it. Why was he picked out of the customs line, searched and ultimately have his computer searched. Is there somewhere we can read the whole case and all the why/how/who/what/where details? Canadian Customs is, for any reason at all, allowed to look through any electronic devices you bring into the country and take a copy of its contents. You can take a look here to see the latest information on what the CBSA are capable of (based off the latest public information that was obtainable). Yes, there had to be something that tipped them off but, the moment you get pulled aside for a closer inspection, you lose a lot of rights.

Not necessarily. For things like laptop searches it is pretty much random selection. Though they do tend to pick on you depending on factors such as race and whether or not your washed and well dressed . So unless he was pulled aside for some specific reason, it is likely he was just the receiver of a random search.

This is not a person.

It is especially troubling when laws intended to direct our society's resource to fighting actual child pornography in which actual children are abused, oftimes in horrific ways, is instead diverted into suppressing the freedom of expression involving drawings.

This is not a person.

One-Eye wrote:

From the handbook: Quote: You are more likely to be chosen to have your devices searched if you: -Are importing something the CBSA deems to be suspicious. This could include anime and manga, which the CBSA is highly suspicious of. The CBSA has reminded its officers that “most [anime and manga is] not child porn”. -Are a single man traveling alone. After reading that handbook its pretty chilling. They can stop anyone at anytime and go thru all your electronic devices. Complain too much? Then its suspicious and you are liable to get your stuff confiscated for a more detailed search. Are you a single man traveling alone with pics of your kids at the beach, then you are probably a pedophile and need to be locked up. It even mentions that there are rumors of searching for illegal copies of media. So, I guess if you have rips of your favorite anime on your laptop or phone you may get scrutinized.

Common sense would tell me when travelling to another country, don't take chances & don't bring anything that makes you stand out. Including images on electronic devices. You are in someone else's land, and all rules you know about from where you live are out the window. Squeaky clean is my rule of thumb when traveling across borders.

the judgement that drawings depicting possible children having sex with other children, or adults comes from the many tested and debated theories that the mind is stimulated the same way regardless what media is used to satisfy that stimulation, which can then cause a craving for increase of stimulation to the point of actual predatory events and outcomes. Therefore a drawing of child porn can have the same effect as real child porn in some perpetrators. But the debate goes on and I find the whole result as wanting more testing as the conclusions are still to ambiguous and sporatic to be of concrete use in law making.

Mohawk52 wrote:

the judgement that drawings depicting possible children having sex with other children, or adults comes from the many tested and debated theories that the mind is stimulated the same way regardless what media is used to satisfy that stimulation, which can then cause a craving for increase of stimulation to the point of actual predatory events and outcomes. Therefore a drawing of child porn can have the same effect as real child porn in some perpetrators. But the debate goes on and I find the whole result as wanting more testing as the conclusions are still to ambiguous and sporatic to be of concrete use in law making.

Even if it was the case that the existence of loli/shota-type content had the potential to create a desire for itself in those otherwise uninclined, going to the extent of illegalizing the content would seem hypocritical in light of the need for the freedom of thought. Naturally, beliefs inform actions and it would not be unreasonable to wonder if this could inspire criminal activity. However, children have been victimized by superstitious parents believing in the power of prayer and it is still legal to disseminate superstitious doctrines in Canada. It was only recently that it became illegal to deny medical treatment to minors on the grounds of religious beliefs. We're hardly out of the puritanical jungle.

Dr. James Cantor, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, was interviewed on Dan Savage's podcast a while back. Typically, the image of a pedophile is of a sociopath that delights in pain and sufferring. However, Dr. Cantor details that there are otherwise average individuals of this temperment as well. He details that some unfortunate souls are in fact neurologically wired differently than the typical adult; the same criteria that cause arousal in you or I when we see secondary sex characteristics is in fact inverse for these people. It's similar to how homosexuals are wired differently, except such feelings can never be ethically realized. This leads to a lot of shame and pain; the stigma of this condition as it is reflected in our legal systems makes it difficult if not impossible to get help without being branded a predator.

Make-believe child abuse is not only fallacious and puritanical, it cuts-off one of the few outlets such individuals have, and it needs to go away.

agila61 wrote:

This is not a person.

But is she 18? Because she's looking awfully hot, and I wanna be sure I'm not being a child molester

"Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends...

But is she 18? Because she's looking awfully hot, and I wanna be sure I'm not being a child molester

A more detailed write-up here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=37552

Quote:

Upon going through the files, the customs officer found an image that was described in the court papers as "a collage of 48 discrete animated images which portray 'persons' involved in sexual acts." This image is actually a moe-style parody of a classical Japanese woodblock print titled Shijūhatte, which roughly translates to "the 48 positions," and is in turn based on a print of the 48 wrestling positions.