(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

Via woodburner :

Handley, 38, faces penalties under the PROTECT Act (18 U.S.C. Section 1466A) for allegedly possessing manga that the government claims to be obscene. The government alleges that the material includes drawings that they claim appear to be depictions of minors engaging in sexual conduct. No photographic content is at issue in Handley's case.

"Handley's case is deeply troubling, because the government is prosecuting a private collector for possession of art," says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. "In the past, CBLDF has had to defend the First Amendment rights of retailers and artists, but never before have we experienced the Federal Government attempting to strip a citizen of his freedom because he owned comic books. We will bring our best resources to bear in aiding Mr. Handley's counsel as they defend his freedom and the First Amendment rights of every art-loving citizen in this country."

Mr. Handley's case began in May 2006 when he received an express mail package from Japan that contained seven Japanese comic books. That package was intercepted by the Postal Inspector, who applied for a search warrant after determining that the package contained cartoon images of objectionable content. Unaware that his materials were searched, Handley drove away from the post office and was followed by various law enforcement officers, who pulled him over and followed him to his home. Once there, agents from the Postal Inspector's office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Special Agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and officers from the Glenwood Police Department seized Handley's collection of over 1,200 manga books or publications; and hundreds of DVDs, VHS tapes, laser disks; seven computers, and other documents. Though Handley's collection was comprised of hundreds of comics covering a wide spectrum of manga, the government is prosecuting images appearing in a small handful...

The rest of the article is here.

No words.  Too busy hiding my manga. 

Comments

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

I just want to know, like, how obscene it is.

I mean, Celestial Legend Ceres has minors engaging in sex. Does genitalia have to be shown for people to freak out?

WHAT IF I DRAW 12-YEAR-OLD STICK PEOPLE DOING IT IN MY NOTEBOOK? WILL I GO TO PRISON?

It's pretty impressive that he owns over 1,200, though. Seven computers! How does that even happen?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think we assume either lots of money, or near-bankruptcy to feed habits.

And yeah, that's kind of the thing.

I mean, look at Basara. Early volumes have the 17 year old hero stumbling across the 15 year old heroine while she's bathing in a hotspring. More than once. They're sometimes in the hotsprint together, and kiss there. (A couple times we could assume sex if we weren't told otherwise.) There are 2 sex scenes between them when they're 16 and 18. At one point, an adult male agrees to have sex with another man to protect his younger companions. Later, it flashes back to him when he was a slave and his master would rape him as a child. While none of these are "graphic," (as compared to other things) they do depict sex where one is a minor (by our standards) and rape.

In Samurai Deeper Kyo, the 16-year-old heroine regularly (especially in earlier volumes, less so when you reach the mid-teens) ends up with her cheast exposed, through no fault of her own. Usually, it because of the much older hero, whose favorite passtime is to cop a feel, usually by shoving his hand down the front of her kimono. (He can't help it. They're his favorite things.) They aren't having sex, but it's definitely sexual activity involving a minor.

[usagi-alchemist.livejournal.com]

I'm not too surprised that he has over 1,200, since I'm sure if I counted my dad's collection it'd add up to about that much, but I agree with you on the count of how obscene is it?
I'd be curious to know exactly what titles he had so I can make sure to stay away from them.