Forum - View topicCommentaries on Handley's Sentencing for Obscene Manga
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GVentola
Posts: 23 |
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I'm a Ned Flanders-esque, goody-two-shoes Christian, but even I think jail time was unjustified. The manga in question I would probably think sick if I saw it, although many manga characters are wide-eyed and look like children, so it may not have been child "pornography" anyway.But I firmly am against censorship--and going through people's mail! I"m just glad he got six months instead of 15 years--that would have been a tragedy and a warning that free speech (and free reading) no longer applies in this country.
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BitShifter
 Posts: 23 |
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We hereby appoint one officer whose duty it will be to investigate the books and drawings in the possession of each citizen. He will have the ability to look into the hearts and minds of men, and determine the depths of their sexual deviancy. Yea, this officer shall be known as the Smutfinder General, and his power will be absolute; to fine, imprison, publicly humiliate in the stocks, or immolate by order of The State, as he sees fit, all those he finds guilty, and those who would consort or traffic contraband with the guilty. Signed this day, Village Council of Salem The Colony Of Massachusetts It may not be as far-fetched as we think... |
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silver_deeds
 Posts: 61 |
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So am I right in assuming that if this were to happen again in a similar case, only without the guilty plea, it would most likely not have gone through?
It seems like they almost over-exaggerated the 15 year jail-time threat to get him to sign the plea just so they could have something to put against him. Even after that, all they could manage was 6 months. I agree with how these guys responded and couldn't have put it better myself. But if he, himself, pleaded guilty and that's what the case came down to, then I don't see this being too much of a threat to us in the future. It's just a horrible misfortune to have happened to Handley, his ill mother, and the rest of his family. Please enlighten me if I'm wrong. |
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rainbowcourage
 Posts: 1216 Location: what is commonly known as "hell week" |
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My friend's rapist is walking around free and unfettered, and this guy went to jail?
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keikanki
 Posts: 107 |
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It's not child abuse. It's ink and paper. That's the point these open letters are trying to establish. See the post before yours for an example of a more straightforward response. 
Hey, what the heck... 
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Wetall
Posts: 70 |
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Am I the only one who's getting sick and tired of all this crying about "virtual child porn" or "lolicon" or whatever the hell you call it on these forums? Regardless of whatever injustice may have been present in the case, continuously arguing and moaning about it on the forums and acting like the goddamn sky is falling isn't going to do any good for anyone. All it does all it does is cause uneducated users to freak out and blow everything out of context, as well as cause the localization companies to be more prone to censoring their own titles than need be--The risk of a company self-censoring a manga/anime title due of fears of such convictions is far more likely to occur than the actual chances of getting convicted in and of itself.
Stop focusing on the possibilities and start focusing on the probabilities--How often do you see anime/manga localization companies getting conviction threats by the government for their titles, as opposed to them censoring themselves out of fears of offending someone? Anime/manga localization companies look in these forums/sites very often, and if they see nothing but people freaking out and acting like chickens with their heads cut off, then they're going to have second thoughts about the titles they release, and they'll be far more likely to censor themselves as opposed to a situation where more people kept their cool. I don't know about any of you, but I've noticed that our own tendency to fearmonger ourselves is capable of doing far more damage to this industry than some spotty law with ambigious language. If you really want to change the world, then change your own attitude--Stop looking at everything in a negative light, and actually think of something positive you can do, and do it. If the law is really that dangerous, then stop dicking around on the internet something about it in real-life to get it changed. Otherwise, the companies themselves are the ones that are going to be the ones doing the censoring, and it'll be the "fans" that are the ones who're causing them to do so, not the "government" or "the man" or "big brother". THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF -- Franklin D. Roosevelt Last edited by Wetall on Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:57 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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BitShifter
Posts: 23 |
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It makes one wonder if it's sufficient defense to have a folder of images containing visual depictions of the birth certificates of all the fictional characters drawn in the manga, clearly showing they are all over 18 years of age, in accordance with U.S.C. 2257 record-keeping requirements... |
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Da Games Elite
 Posts: 124 |
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Alright, before you guys all start losing your minds, there are a few things you guys keep overlooking.
During the original official response, the judges stated that the hentai possessed was crude and lacked any artistic redeeming qualities to the pedophilia, so you don't need to worry about being carted to jail if Big Brother catches you looking at Elfen Lied. Regardless, to say that Handley did nothing wrong is both right and wrong. On one hand, legally, he di nothing wrong until his case set a precident. On the other hand, though, there were only a couple of cases like this, so until we see a trend we don't need to get paranoid. However, truthfully, I'm not a big fan of hentai anyway, so this entire thing won't affect me too much. Im not going to be too ruined by the idea that Big Brother is cracking down on a sort of thing that I'm not into anyway. However, for the rest of you fans, keep in mind this: six months. I don't know if Handley was marked as a sexual deviant of any kind, but I don't remember it ever being mentioned. If he wasn't marked down as one, you can rest assured good ol' Handley's punishment will be much less intense. Additionally, you can rest assured that you will be safe in your circumstances. However, to call this a witchhunt, I don't know if that's fair. It isn't a witchhunt until there's a trend. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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How can you say this so definitively? Just because you think Elfen Lied has artistic merit and is not obscene does not mean that the judge will think the same. EDIT: Oh, and I love the idea with the virtual birth certificates 
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BitShifter
Posts: 23 |
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I was actually remembering the phrasing of the quote from the original 2/11/2010 ANN article which described some of the materials submitted to the judicial proceeding:
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mrsatan
 Posts: 911 Location: Olympia, WA, USA |
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No, it isn't. If I draw a stick figure in the Muslim nations and label it "Muhammed" it is crime. If I draw a naked female in the US and label it "Girl, age 12", it is apparently a crime. I would draw it for you to illustrate, but then I might go to jail. You'll have to just imagine it for the time being; that isn't illegal (yet).
I'll admit it's a little off-topic, but it's exactly what I said. He allows for the death penalty for a criminal that didn't take a life, all to appease the "for the children" Soccer Mom crowd. I'm a strong supporter of the death penalty, yet this bothers even me. |
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njprogfan
 Collector Extraordinaire Posts: 1163 Location: A River Named Toms |
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I'd love to know how the guy from the Postal Service knew to open the package. What tipped him off? Was it the address? Or the retailer that sold him the manga? Or was it random? Hell, I'd hate to have any package opened just because it may look a certain way or was from a certain country/and or retailer.
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mrsatan
Posts: 911 Location: Olympia, WA, USA |
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The only way someone could "do their homework" is to read the manga in question, which most Americans wouldn't be willing do now (for obvious reasons). |
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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Interesting bit of opinion, tempest. Must admit that even I was a little worried about that. But, if the government keeps pressuring the ISPs like this, it wouldn't be long before even the underpants we buy online will be known, since it's no secret that most hentai is downloaded unofficially from fansubs/raw providers.
If what this man did was a crime or not isn't even arguable for me. What could really piss me off about all this would be the government wasting public funds to satisfy their own sense of national purity. About time for a coup d'état. |
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Gilles Poitras
Posts: 476 Location: Oakland California |
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Customs service, the package was coming from Japan. |
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