Be careful of shouta and loli

[dragonimp]

‘Obscene’ U.S. Manga Collector Jailed 6 Months

A U.S. comic book collector is being sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to importing and possessing Japanese manga books depicting illustrations of child sex and bestiality.

Christopher Handley was sentenced in Iowa on Thursday, (.pdf) almost a year after pleading guilty to charges of possessing “obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children.”

The 40-year-old was charged under the 2003 Protect Act, which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Handley was the nation’s first to be convicted under that law for possessing cartoon art, without any evidence that he also collected or viewed genuine child pornography.

...

Comic fans were outraged, saying jailing someone over manga does not protect children from sexual abuse.

This seems more like an abuse of the legal system than an actual effort to protect children.

Comments

[anotherfmafan.livejournal.com]

I've been following this case since it started, and it's absolutely ridiculous. To think that here in America I have reason to worry over the big bad government coming to put me in prison for my banned books. It's enough to make you want to scream. They aren't even shota-style, but hey, Ed's a minor, so they gotta protect the children from me. *sighs*

[dragonimp.livejournal.com]

I know - and that's a really big fuzzy line they have there, too. Especially with that "artistic value" and the BS about "depictions that the defendant’s community would consider “obscene.”" So if he'd lived in, say, some parts of San Francisco, he might've been fine? I don't know what my community considers "obscene," I've never asked them.