Forum - View topicBad news about selling Manga
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isaacada1
 Posts: 779 Location: Snohomish, WA |
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SUPREME COURT DENIES CASTILLO
http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=36&t=001262 http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4953 Thoughts, comments? |
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Case
Posts: 1016 |
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Just read the "press release" on the matter linked in the right navigation bar on the front page.
Even though I'm not much of a manga fan myself, and I've been impressed by the acceptance that anime and manga both have come to increasingly have over the last few years, I gotta say... This sucks. I have to agree with the author of this "PR". I really don't think justice is being served here. And I'm not just saying that because it sounds good. It's obviously really hard to tell how much of an impact this ruling is ultimately going to have - it could fade into history and be all but forgotten, or it could possibly create a precedent for some really nasty anti-anime (/manga/comic books/foreign culture/animation culture/whatever) sentiment. All I can say is, I really hope this doesn't become any kind of national controversy. That would probably lead to very bad things. |
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SkullKnight
 Posts: 317 Location: Deep South |
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yes folks a revolution is coming, I can feel it in the wind, it might not be in our lifetime but it will happen.
The ignorant shall be enlightened. Oh what I'd do to get to fight in that. I'm really getting tired of hearing about cases like this. |
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radicaledward
 Posts: 776 |
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I've done some reading on the net to find out the details of the case, and here goes - the store owner was charged with obscenity for selling Demon Beast Invasion and Legend of the Overfiend (both are hentai manga). For those of you whom are unaware of how Texas obscenity laws work, somethig is considered obscene if:
1) It arouses puriant interests 2) It is considered patently offensive 3) It has no artistic merit The first two parts are determined by the "Community Standard" which means if you have a conservitive jury its going to think more is obscene. Also, the prosecutor used the following statement in the closing arguments to push the "Community Standard" in her favor:
Finely part three of the obscenity law is determined by the judge, but the judge will tend to side with the prevaling "Community Standard". Overall this can be bad news for manga in general, not just for hentai, simply because it now give people a bigger stick to go after manga retailers with. If people decide to go after manga with the obscenety laws they just need to sway the "Community Standard" in their favor. |
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molloaggie
 Posts: 578 Location: Texas |
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Here, have another look at the the story from somebody's eyes other than the comic book industry.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2001-01-04/news.html Prosecuting a clerk, and not the owner is stupid. I think if Jesus wants justice, he needs to be suing the company that printed the material. The charge was not selling obscene stuff to children so the those comments about "save the children" by the prosecutor were a little out of place. I am surprised that a court that rules that virtual child pornography isn't obscene, didn't order this case revisited. After all, what's the difference here? The comic book industry can file a new appeal, based on the fact that both are "virtual" and then it could possibly slide by. It would do wonders for the comic book industry to compare some of their work to the work of child pornographers though. |
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king_micah
 Posts: 994 Location: OSU |
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Well, it was more that this is one of those barely legal community laws. They are allowed to have obscenity laws, and locale jurys are the ones to decide. This is, of course, a horrid case of baiting, but it is the same law that allows them to regulate porn stores and strip clubs.
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Godaistudios
Posts: 2075 Location: Albuquerque, NM (the land of entrapment) |
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The problem is that you can probably still go down the street there and find your Penthouse, Playboy, Hustler, etc. There is a double standard being excercised here and they have made it so that any comic book style form of nudity may as well be considered "obscene" because after all, "comic books are for children."
The double standard should be obvious... they have books for children, they have magazines for children, they have television shows for children, movies for children, etc... So why not manga and anime for adults? This isn't merely about obscenty laws until they are consistent and remove all forms of porn that are used in mediums for children as well. Maybe the next argument will be "movies are meant for the family to enjoy, which includes children, so any porographic movies are obscene for this community and must go." If such an argument does not occour, then it shows that they are targeting as they please, and it proves the double standard... (As with Jesus Castillo, he ID'ed the person buying the manga who was of legal age to buy it, and it was in an area that was not accessible to children - video stores that carry porn also have these regulations.) |
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Magatsu
Posts: 33 Location: London, England |
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When was it a law that comic books are for children? Haven't they noticed that times has changed? Many American and Japanese comics have proved many times that comics aren't exclusively for children.
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king_micah
Posts: 994 Location: OSU |
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Well, where he was did not allow Penthouse or other such things, the police officers went around and baited those shops too.
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GATSU
Posts: 15307 |
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The thing about Demon Beast Invasion is it's not "virtual child porn", just "virtual porn", which means that if enough people speak out on it, it can be taken out of their community. (As opposed to "virtual child porn", which would require the federal government to intervene. Although they're still trying to overwrite that decision, and I have a feeling it will be the new First Amendment issue after flag burning amendments failed. If they were to come up with an amendment for virtual child porn, it might even get more support!) And for the record, the group which went against hentai has also unsuccessfully tried to ban strip clubs as well. They probably won, in this case, because they could use the argument that the comic store was "deceiving" parents and children by selling pornographic titles. Anyway, the Court would be more likely to support this cause if it was the federal government which imposed such rules, because it currently believes in states' rights. As is, the only way to win in general is to avoid arguing the moral issues of these cases, but to use lawyers who can successfully dispel each other's fallacies in their legal arguments.
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Animefreak08
 Posts: 882 Location: Michigan ftw. |
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This really sucks...just because its animated or is a comic it is dismissed as something for a child! my dad thinks manga is just a bunch of kidstuff...but when something like this happens...well look around you! read some manga watch some anime [not yugioh] and maybe then u will see that its not all kids stuff...this jjust makes me so frickin mad! i just got a makinaizer dvd from newtype and was watching the "Najica" preview...and my dad now thinks that manga and anime are not only for children but for others as well...comics[manga]are not just for kids...
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