(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

Remember the Iowa collector who was arrested for buying obscene manga from Japan?  Apparently it was yaoi manga.

Legally, I'm not sure there's a leg to stand on unless there was shouta in the collection, but I wonder if this means they're going to start looking at other licensed manga, especially since the androgynous figures were apparently part of it.

ETA:  I'm also very curious about what made the postmaster suspicious about this guy in the first place.  Was it random, typecasting,  or something about him in particular, whether behavir or problems/accusations/convictions in the past?

Comments

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

.........time to wipe my harddrives brb

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Forget your harddrives! What about my manga about incestuous teenaged siblings who are actually reincarnated female angels.

The Special Place is becoming my home, isn't it?

[nebulia.livejournal.com]

Angel Sanctuary is my favorite manga; I'm going to the Special Hell with you, don't worry. XD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It's popular enough that I'm not worried about being alone.

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Yeah...why the postman went through the material to begin with is just, "the fuck? PRIVACY VIOLATIONS!" and all that shit.

*gives thumbs up to Neil Gaiman, because DAMN HE'S AWESOME*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, I think that, legally, the PM can perform random inspections. You just have to wonder how it managed to be this package.

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Very true.

Likelihood is that the postman is a closet otaku.

"Hmm...this package looks small and inconspicuous enough--wait a minute, it's from JAPAN! It could contain Bloody And Violent Japanese Porn! I must...investigate. Yes. Exactly."

[calixa.livejournal.com]

What exactly does "obscene" entail?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Hmm...it's detailed out in the links, I think.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

The legal definition of obscene is that it appeals only to 'prurient interest' and has no artistic value of any sort.

[nebulia.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, this must be a special case. I live in Iowa, along with some other yaoi fans, and I know I have ordered shouta yaoi from out of the country (Shut up, it was a Kuroshitsuji doujin) and I haven't been arrested. Actually, I don't know of anyone who's been arrested.

I'm thinking it must be random, honestly.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Random, or something about the guy himself.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

It's 1993 all over again.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

1993?

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I remember being in high school and early college and reading about the later raids.

[cavechan.livejournal.com]

Jesus F. Christ. This is bullshit that I would've expected in like the 1960s *coughErosmagazine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Ginzburg#EROS)cough*

[xplodey-di.livejournal.com]

Uhhh.... whoops. Good thing my computer of illegally downloaded things crashed. D:

[animeshon.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. I'm quite glad I live in NZ instead of the USA right now!

As for the postmaster checking the parcel, does he play a role like customs over here? Customs open and inspect every x parcel to pass through the office as well as any that appear suspicious or are scanned funny.

[neuclear.livejournal.com]

I think there has to be something more to this, like maybe the person looking through the parcel may have thought the two teenaged boys in the manga or something were infact twelve? I've seen it happen before with my gen manga--so I don't think there's ever going to be a full out raid, perhaps something about the man's personality maybe? He may have a history of pedophilia and this is icing on the cake?

At any rate, I don't think it'll lead to any full scale raids...otherwise, almost more than half of LJ, as well as many people who attend Cons at this point in time are in fact doomed...

[anime-heart.livejournal.com]

GIven what I read about his collection, it's possible they picked up on him because he was ordering large quantities of stuff from overseas and they were suspicious of him being a porn dealer or something. Or someone could have turned him in--that happens all the time.