If you ’re traveling to Canada , a commonwealth whose custom officials are notorious for playing the purpose of ethical motive police force , you ’d better give your Japanese strip at home — whether they ’re in print or digital .
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund announced today in a press sack that it ’s forming a coalition to confirm the defense of an American citizen facing criminal charges for manga discovered on his laptop while crossing from the US into Canada . If convict , he faces a minimum of one year in prison house on charges of child pornography .
To quote from theCBLDF press waiver :
The facts of the case necessitate an American citizen , computing gadget programmer , and comic book fancier in his mid - twenties who was flying from his household in the United States to Canada to visit a admirer . Upon arrival at Canadian Customs a custom officeholder conduct a lookup of the American and his personal belongings , including his laptop , iPad , and iPhone . The customs policeman describe manga on the laptop computer and deal it to be nipper pornography . The client ’s name is being keep back on the request of counsel for reasons relating to legal strategy .
The images at effect are all comics in the manga elan . No photographic evidence of vicious behavior is at issue . Nevertheless , a stock-purchase warrant was cut and the laptop was twist over to police . Consequently , the American has been file with both the willpower of child pornography as well as its importation into Canada . As a result , if convicted at trial , the American face a lower limit of one year in prison house . This slip could have far extend to implication for funny Quran and manga in North America .
These charge come at a time when sexual material in manga is being take exception both in Japan and overseas . In 2007 , Christopher Handley , a manga collector in Iowa , was charged under the PROTECT Act for possession of child pornography when custom officials intercepted and open a package for Handley from Japan . Police later came to his house with a search sanction and charged him based on several “ repulsive ” manga find in his compendium . Despite a vigorous defense by the CBLDF and amusing luminaries such asNeil Gaimanand manga expertMatt Thorn , Handley finally plead hangdog in 2009 and was sentenced to six months of prison house clock time .
In 2010 , the Tokyo Metropolitan Government extend Bill 156,an expanding upon of a dusty 1964 law of nature titled the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths , yield the Tokyo government far - reaching powers over minors ’ admission to the cyberspace and peregrine devices , and criminalizing the sales event to child of
any manga , vivification , or picture ( but not including material life pictures or footage ) that sport either sexual or pseudo intimate act that would be illegal in actual biography , or sexual or pseudo sexual human activity between airless relatives whose wedding would be illegal , where such depictions and / or presentations unjustifiably spiritualize or overdo the activity .
Pointedly , unlike America ’s PROTECT act , Tokyo ’s Bill 156 does not foreclose the sales agreement of graphical grownup manga as long as they ’re label “ 18 and up ” ; thus , the banker’s bill would actually not criminalize the kind of hardcore manga Handley was convict of possessing , but rather targets boundary line title such as teenage sex comedy , gritty manga involving taboo subjects such as harlotry and incest , and so on .
As Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara , a major supporter of Bill 156 lately elected to a fourth term after the passage of the broadsheet , said in a press league in December 2010(from the blog of manga translator and anti - Bill-156 advocateDan Kanemitsu ):
It ’s clear there are deviant in this world . Sad the great unwashed with warped DNA … I do n’t recall westerly societies would brook such affair very much . Japan has become too uninhibited .
Asked for information about what manga attracted the ire of Canadian impost in the current shell , CBLDF executive director director Charles Brownstein say , “ My reason with regard to the material at matter is that it include fantasy comics drawn in a mixture of manga styles . One of the items is believed to be a doujinshi , or fan - made comic , of the mainstream manga series Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha . Another is believe to be a comedian in the original Japanese portray stick - figure like figure in various sexual positions . In all suit , the authorities are targeting expressive prowess , and not any photographic evidence of a crime . ”
Of course , the exact nature of the nontextual matter found on the laptop is irrelevant to the free - speech issue involve . ( The art for this article is generic Nanoha artwork . ) In Handley ’s shell , some of the public fellow feeling for Handley evaporated after his conviction when it was found that the title he was accused of possessing were n’t yaoi manga or mildly kinky manga gender comedies , but explicit heterosexual lolicon ( Lolita Complex ) adult manga .
Other effectual travelers who have had comics sequester or explore by Canada ’s infamously avid usance officials , such asElizabeth McClung , who was point in 2006 for carry Miki Aihara ’s YA love affair manga Tokyo Boys & Girls ( customs officials were suspicious of the word “ boy ” in the title ) , have accused Canadian authority of single out gay and lesbian stuff .
But disregarding of the intimate activities picture , fanciful is fanciful , artwork is artwork , and defending free speech means defending obnoxious and offensive speech as well . Handley ’s guilty plea means that no legal precedent was set in his guinea pig , but this cool new case is another round in the effectual battle over protected barren voice communication , and of course a major battle for the incriminate , whose biography could be ruined if convicted of child smut .
The CBLDF , together with the Canadian Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund , is soliciting funds for the defense , which they estimate will cost $ 150,000 Canadian . For more information see the CBLDF press releasehere .
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