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Censorship Your Rights Online

Graphic Artists Condemn UK Ban On Erotic Comics 408

mdwh2 writes "Graphic artists, publishers and MPs have condemned the UK's Coroners and Justice Bill, which will criminalize possession of sexual depictions that appear to show someone under 18 (the age of consent is 16 in the UK), as well as adults where the 'predominant impression conveyed' is of someone under 18, and even if they are merely drawn as being present whilst sexual activity took place between adults. The definitions could include Lost Girls, Watchmen, and South Park. The Comic Book Alliance has launched a petition against the law."
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Graphic Artists Condemn UK Ban On Erotic Comics

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  • Just like... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sasayaki ( 1096761 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @12:01AM (#27376111)

    Just like here in Australia, where we said that Bart and Lisa were real people and if you draw/possess/distribute pictures of them naked, you go to jail. In the UK, that extends to South Park.

    Well, that's a'right. I'm listing Bart, Lisa and Maggie as dependants on my tax return this year, as well registering Maggie to get the baby bonus (she's obviously only a year old or so so she counts- every year too!). I recommend UK citizens do the same for Kyle, Stan, Kenny and Cartman.

    Of course, the UK government will not see the humour in that. Ridiculous extremes only apply when used against the people, not for them.

    • by Antidamage ( 1506489 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @12:05AM (#27376135) Homepage

      Dear Sasayaki

      The IRS has it on good authority that you owe approximately $529,000 in unpaid child support for your children Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson. Our records show you are delinquent on every payment since the birth of each child. Your tax rebate has been rejected and you now owe us $528,500.

      Love
      The IRS

    • Re:Just like... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mpe ( 36238 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @06:00AM (#27377779)
      Just like here in Australia, where we said that Bart and Lisa were real people and if you draw/possess/distribute pictures of them naked, you go to jail.

      This would be kind of ironic considering some of the comments when the logo for the 2012 London Olympics was first shown.
  • Standard (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Joebert ( 946227 )
    Where's the line going to be drawn on that law ?

    I understand the need to keep an eye on the perverts who pass themselves off as artists, but guys, myself included, routinely joke about checking ID before sleeping with a chick for good reason.
    • Re:Standard (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 77Punker ( 673758 ) <(ude.tniophgih) (ta) (40rcneps)> on Sunday March 29, 2009 @12:19AM (#27376231)

      I understand the need to keep an eye on the perverts who pass themselves off as artists

      Why?

      Cops should deal with perverts who touch kids. Victimless crimes are just tools for fearmongering politicians to get the attention and votes of self-centered parents.

  • Dear Politician... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Shadow of Eternity ( 795165 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @12:33AM (#27376309)
    Misters Manet, Degas, and Van Gogh would like to inform you of their fervent objections to your new law...
    • by jd ( 1658 )

      Never mind that lot, it means virtually all St. Trinian's TV shows are now illegal to own or watch, and all BBC General Directors since the 1960s will now have to file as sex offenders.

      (Well, that last part isn't too bad, I suppose.)

      • by Shadow of Eternity ( 795165 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @01:23AM (#27376619)
        Meanwhile in the USA two people who forced a 13yo to strip and expose herself to them on nothing more than the word of one student who they knew hated her are not being tried for a sex offense while a 14yo girl who took sex pics of herself for her boyfriend IS. Rest of the world: We don't get it either.
        • While I don't agree with what happened to that girl, you're misrepresenting the facts. The school officials didn't make her strip to get their jollies, they made her strip in the overzealous application of school policy. It was certainly wrong, but miscasting what happened is wrong too.
    • by Atlantis-Rising ( 857278 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @01:20AM (#27376595) Homepage

      But cartoons aren't ART!

      For it to be art, it has to be old!

  • Stick figure porn (Score:2, Interesting)

    by louzer ( 1006689 )

    XKCD should draw stick figure porn in protest..

    We should all protest with placards showing stick figure porn.. I am sure the children won't understand it.

  • What next? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by meerling ( 1487879 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @12:48AM (#27376397)
    So basically, you can get jailed for a drawing that someone else thinks might be of someone under 18.
    Talk about B.S.

    What next?
    Getting arrested for stalking or mugging just because you and some paranoid idiot were walking the same direction on a mostly deserted street?
  • which will criminalize possession of sexual depictions that appear to show someone under 18 (the age of consent is 16 in the UK)

    Well, since the age of consent for this law is 16, then can't I simply not consent to be governed by this law?

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29, 2009 @01:00AM (#27376461)

    It's all in there!

    Perverts have been forcing it on children for thousands of years!

    The sickness must stop!

    Hitler studied to be a Catholic Priest.

    Stalin studied to be an Orthadox Priest.

    Almost everyone convicted of a violent crime in the US is religious. Worldwide, every single major terrorist incident was committed by religious people.

    So again, if we are going to ban something for the good of everyone it should be the Bible, not comic books.

  • by pieisgood ( 841871 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @01:00AM (#27376467) Journal
    People are such twits. They really think they are helping children when doing this, which is the ultimate scape goat. What they are actually doing is preventing them selves from being exposed to something they find objectionable. They are imposing their morality/fear on individuals who aren't committing crimes, of course... not for long. What this all boils down to in a neat way, as it always does, is.... people are stupid.
  • Absurd and naive (Score:5, Insightful)

    by joeszilagyi ( 635484 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @01:06AM (#27376507)
    This really is an absurd law, in it's sweepingly naive format. It reeks of a knee-jerk reaction by people to what is likely an outcry by a vocal and irrelevant handful of local conservative constituents, now being capitalized on for political gain by career bureaucrats.

    I wonder if anyone would be so bold as to do the right thing, and suggest a law protecting artistic expression in the UK, equivalent in scope to American Freedom of Speech?

    • Erm, I wouldn't say American Freedom of Speech is all that wide in scope. If what I read on Slashdot is correct, American Freedom of Speech only applies where the government wants it to apply and when the government wants it to apply.

  • by DamnStupidElf ( 649844 ) <Fingolfin@linuxmail.org> on Sunday March 29, 2009 @01:16AM (#27376577)

    If it hasn't happened already, I imagine that pretty soon the number of "child" porn (by the legal definition) images on social networking sites and cell phones will out-number all the other child porn images ever created.

    There's just no sense in laws that make images of naked people under the age of 18 illegal. Punish the people who actually commit crimes of child abuse.

  • by carlzum ( 832868 )
    The summary says

    The definitions could include Lost Girls, Watchmen, and South Park.

    But I don't see how any of those works are threatened by the definitions.

    the image may, by virtue of being part of that narrative, be found not to be pornographic, even though it might have been found to be pornographic if taken by itself.

    If anything, the law is less threating to legitimate art than existing obscenity laws in the US. If this law simply means possession of child porn is illegal regardless of how it was p

  • Appear? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Angst Badger ( 8636 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @01:31AM (#27376669)

    Appear to show someone under eighteen? Under such a law, there would be two possible responses:

    1. Only depict people who are obviously middle-aged or older having sex.

    2. Write stories in which all of the characters are androids. This could include, of course, androids that look like three-year-olds having sex with robots that look like dogs.

    While I have no particular interest in seeing either option, I certainly hope someone puts both in the same comic book and sells it in every comic store in the UK.

  • Pornography? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Nekomusume ( 956306 )

    "An image is "pornographic" if it is of such a nature that it must reasonably be assumed to have been produced solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal."

    That's a rather broad definition... Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, Victoria's Secret catalogues, and just about anything that directly or indirectly invokes the "sex sells!" marketing theory.

  • Once again (Score:5, Insightful)

    by crmarvin42 ( 652893 ) on Sunday March 29, 2009 @11:01AM (#27379089)
    Another law being passed based on the assumption that a certain medium is targeted and consumed exlusively by children.

    I'm almost 30 and I own several thousand comic books, probably 30 graphic novels, and actively collect 6 or 7 titles every month. I own the Watchmen and several other titles that would be taboo under this law. None of what's in any of these is more pornographic that he Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M. Auel, which my parents gave me to read when I was 13. They'd already read the books a couple of years before and knew about the sex scenes. My wife read Flowers in the Attic around the same age and she tells me that the oldest boy rapes his sister.

    Neither of these books come with warnings about the graphic nature of their content or laws to prevent their dissemination to children 2 years above the legal age of consent (WTF, this is akin to the difference between the draft age and legal purchase of alcohol in the US).

    My wife is pregnant with our first child and I hope that I never become so irresponsible that I want the government to censor artistic expression because I'm too lazy to investigate the media my children are interested in before I let them consume it. My parents used the Clan of the Cave Bear books as a starting point for the discussion of, not only reproduction, but relationships and human sexuality. I'm sure my parents were embarrased, but that was there job NOT the governments.

    For the most part people have little problem with sex or sexuality in visual art. How many nude paintings did you see on your field trips to art museums growing up? For the most part people also have little problem with sex or sexuality in written art. I can't count the number of novels I read in middle school and high school that at least made reference to sex. However, when you combine the visual and written medium everyone looses their Fracking mind if anything taboo comes up (Drugs, sex, etc were the original reason for creating the Comics Code here in the US).

    It's all just Nanny State BS.

For God's sake, stop researching for a while and begin to think!

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