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20 Years in Prison for Buying a Manga

Ikari

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- 20 Years in Prison for Buying a Manga - Anime News Network

In less than two months, starting on February 2, 2009, a court case will begin in Iowa. The defendant, Christopher Handley, is facing as much as 20 years in prison for the charge against him. This is, as we say on the intarwebs: serious business. Twenty years? They must claim he did something really bad. Something really bad to someone, right?

Actually, he just ordered some manga from Japan. And...that's all he did.

Some of these manga contain images that are supposedly—according to the prosecutor—"obscene." But we'll put aside what kind of images they are claimed to be for the moment, because that isn't being decided anywhere but in this court case. And although we can debate it, there's no practical point in doing so here—because debating their content on ANN won't, and can't affect the outcome.

Maybe there are certain types of manga you'd never read or buy. Maybe you've got strong feelings about some kinds of manga, and you don't think they're right. In fact, you're pretty sure you don't even have anything like that in your collection.

Iowa Collector Charged for Allegedly Obscene Manga (Update 2) - Anime News Network

CBLDF's United Defense Group team, led by Eric Chase, has successfully petitioned District Judge Gritzner to drop some of Handley's charges and rule parts of a controversial law unconstitutional. Handley was initially charged under the United States Code, which was amended by section 504 of the PROTECT Act to prohibit distribution or possession of "a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting," that —

• ‘(1)(A) depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and

• ’(B) is obscene; or

• '(2)(A) depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in graphic bestiality, sadistic or masochistic abuse, or sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; and

• '(B) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;

So basically there's this dude. He likes anime (who doesn't) and collects manga and such. I can relate, I do too. Ordered some stuff from Japan, Post Office inspector general opens it, thinks it's obscene. Police get a warrant and bust down his door. Now he faces up to 20 years for manga. For those that may not know, manga is sorta like comic books. Now there's lots of strange things from Japan, including but not limited to lolicon. I don't know if that's what he had or not, but I don't understand how you get 20 years even if it is lolicon. It's drawn, there's no people involved, there's no rights violated, so how can there be a crime? I'm of the opinion that crime can only occur when rights are violated, or potentially so. The potentially so is going to have to be a case involving actual live people, not drawings. Drawings are drawings and nothing more. Hentai may be "obscene", but that's sorta the point. Like all porn really, and porn in general isn't banned.

I think this whole case to be absurd and an overstepping of the authority into the lives of the individual. Almost makes me wonder if I have anything considered "obscene". Or what the government really consideres "obscene". It seems to me that they made the definition loose enough so that they allowed themselves way too much freedom of movement. It's not right, and this law should definitely be stricken from the books.
 
.......wow......I just spit coke out of my nose....
 
What a waste... :mrgreen:
Just what exactly...wh-why....it it, its just......wtf, LOLICON? holy CRAP. What ELSE do they draw in Japan? ...wait, I don't want to know...man...I have heard TOO much today.
 
What ELSE do they draw in Japan?

Futanari, regular hentai, tentacle rape seems popular, demons, etc.

It's Japan, it's a little different over there. But that's not the point. The point is this dude had some manga, I don't really know what type, but he had some that they government thought was obscene and they are willing to chuck his ass into prison for 20 years because of it. I don't care what type of manga it was, manga is all drawn and thus could not have infringed upon anyone's rights. There should be no crime.
 
That is strange. Japan has some pretty strict porn laws. I use to export photo books there and Madonna's Sex book was a hit there it was illegal however and when Japanese customs caught them they would send them back.
 
I don't care for anime, but I have to agree with Ikari here. Why is he even facing ANY charges, much less 20 years of jail time. I'd hate to see somebody actually get tentacle raped, because of some comic books.
 
I don't care for anime, but I have to agree with Ikari here. Why is he even facing ANY charges, much less 20 years of jail time. I'd hate to see somebody actually get tentacle raped, because of some comic books.

Another case like this happened with a photographer named Jock Sturges. Also Henery Miller had to smuggle his first book into the US.
 
- 20 Years in Prison for Buying a Manga - Anime News Network



Iowa Collector Charged for Allegedly Obscene Manga (Update 2) - Anime News Network



So basically there's this dude. He likes anime (who doesn't) and collects manga and such. I can relate, I do too. Ordered some stuff from Japan, Post Office inspector general opens it, thinks it's obscene. Police get a warrant and bust down his door. Now he faces up to 20 years for manga...

I quite don't understand completely the scenario. Did the inspector open the package with or without the correspondent permission of the mail recipient?

If the Post Office inspector did it without the recipient's permission, isn't this a case of violation of privacy? As far as I know Japan is not in the list of being a terrorist country or similar to open every package that comes from it.
 
- 20 Years in Prison for Buying a Manga - Anime News Network



Iowa Collector Charged for Allegedly Obscene Manga (Update 2) - Anime News Network



So basically there's this dude. He likes anime (who doesn't) and collects manga and such. I can relate, I do too. Ordered some stuff from Japan, Post Office inspector general opens it, thinks it's obscene. Police get a warrant and bust down his door. Now he faces up to 20 years for manga. For those that may not know, manga is sorta like comic books. Now there's lots of strange things from Japan, including but not limited to lolicon. I don't know if that's what he had or not, but I don't understand how you get 20 years even if it is lolicon. It's drawn, there's no people involved, there's no rights violated, so how can there be a crime? I'm of the opinion that crime can only occur when rights are violated, or potentially so. The potentially so is going to have to be a case involving actual live people, not drawings. Drawings are drawings and nothing more. Hentai may be "obscene", but that's sorta the point. Like all porn really, and porn in general isn't banned.

I think this whole case to be absurd and an overstepping of the authority into the lives of the individual. Almost makes me wonder if I have anything considered "obscene". Or what the government really consideres "obscene". It seems to me that they made the definition loose enough so that they allowed themselves way too much freedom of movement. It's not right, and this law should definitely be stricken from the books.

But their game shows are acceptable?

Where does Japan get off calling anything obscene?
 
Another case like this happened with a photographer named Jock Sturges. Also Henery Miller had to smuggle his first book into the US.

Well the Chinese banned Guns N Roses new album, because it had the title "democracy" in it. So its not like we're the only ones :2razz:
 
Well the Chinese banned Guns N Roses new album, because it had the title "democracy" in it. So its not like we're the only ones :2razz:

Axle Rose should be BANNED:2razz:
 
Axle Rose should be BANNED:2razz:

For a while, it seemed like he was. I'm not worried though, his new album was such a disappointment, I am sure he'll throw another 15 year hissy fit.
 
If the Post Office inspector did it without the recipient's permission, isn't this a case of violation of privacy? As far as I know Japan is not in the list of being a terrorist country or similar to open every package that comes from it.

He ordered the manga from Japan. Anything that comes into this country can be searched at random. And this time it came up with the manga books.

Japan has a lot of odd pornography laws which actually ended up encouraging this type of hentai. Still it's absurd and an overstepping of authority by the government to press charges in a case where there was no possibility of a person's rights being infringed upon.
 
He ordered the manga from Japan. Anything that comes into this country can be searched at random. And this time it came up with the manga books.

Japan has a lot of odd pornography laws which actually ended up encouraging this type of hentai. Still it's absurd and an overstepping of authority by the government to press charges in a case where there was no possibility of a person's rights being infringed upon.
Thanks for the explanation.

I think that US law enforcement appears to have a misunderstanding here, and in this case there are no pictures of real children or of real past events of people pictured in a kind of pornography in order to claim abuses, and neither to call witness "affected" by this person because he owns a manga collection.

If this is the "future" of law enforcement, and one day a police device might become able to detect what you think, then I guess that the construction of prisons will overcome the construction of houses in US.:shock:

I will play a loose scenario where a collector of this kind of magazines can be exempted of charges the same way the ambulance vehicle is exempt of traffic tickets when it runs a red light, because the intention in both cases which are penalized to most people is not to violate the law. I think that this person might apply for a special license or similar to keep such magazines. I mean, I think that the Library of Congress might also own the same manga magazines but that they can be seen only by authorized people.

If I'm this person's attorney I will play hard to obtain records from the Library of Congress and check how this institution is authorized to keep such a publications...of course, this is only if the Library of Congress has a special department which buys them to be cataloged in its files. As far as I know the Library of Congress tries to obtain as many publications come out from other countries, I don't know how far this institution goes with publications like manga or manga style.

I don't see either any legal reason to press charges over this collector, but this case can be similar to the Illinois governor's case where after a few weeks appears to turn in his favor...at least his attorney is presenting a good version or excuse.
 
For a while, it seemed like he was. I'm not worried though, his new album was such a disappointment, I am sure he'll throw another 15 year hissy fit.

Let's mail him to Japan:mrgreen:
 
This is one of those .. only in America moments.
 
First Pokemon and now this...Japanese culture has a lot of explaining to do. :lol:

But seriously, I agree that this case is ridiculous. I don't care what the comics are depicting, no one was harmed by their production, sale, or possession. My guess is that the case will be dismissed. If I'm not mistaken, the Supreme Court has already ruled in similar cases that this is protected free speech.
 
The reason I don't care for anime, hentai, etc is because it very hard for a person to casually view it (on the net) without inevitably having the image of some prepubescent girl being raped by some obscenely large phallus.
I have known some situation like this guy is facing would happen eventually.
I didn't want it to be me!
 
20 years ??
Yet a man can rape and get away with it in some cases. A child can be molested and the man receives a slap on the wrist.

Does our criminal justice "system" need reform or what ???

BTW, I have observed that the punishment for committing a crime against the state is far more severe than committing the same against an individual...
 
I'm not sure why everyone is so up in arms over this at this point. He faces up to 20 years if found guilty. The case hasn't even happened yet, so he hasn't even been found guilty.

We don't know all the facts of the case yet, and we don't know the situation fully.
 
- 20 Years in Prison for Buying a Manga - Anime News Network



Iowa Collector Charged for Allegedly Obscene Manga (Update 2) - Anime News Network



So basically there's this dude. He likes anime (who doesn't) and collects manga and such. I can relate, I do too. Ordered some stuff from Japan, Post Office inspector general opens it, thinks it's obscene. Police get a warrant and bust down his door. Now he faces up to 20 years for manga. For those that may not know, manga is sorta like comic books. Now there's lots of strange things from Japan, including but not limited to lolicon. I don't know if that's what he had or not, but I don't understand how you get 20 years even if it is lolicon. It's drawn, there's no people involved, there's no rights violated, so how can there be a crime? I'm of the opinion that crime can only occur when rights are violated, or potentially so. The potentially so is going to have to be a case involving actual live people, not drawings. Drawings are drawings and nothing more. Hentai may be "obscene", but that's sorta the point. Like all porn really, and porn in general isn't banned.

I think this whole case to be absurd and an overstepping of the authority into the lives of the individual. Almost makes me wonder if I have anything considered "obscene". Or what the government really consideres "obscene". It seems to me that they made the definition loose enough so that they allowed themselves way too much freedom of movement. It's not right, and this law should definitely be stricken from the books.

1.) It's a violation of the 1st Amendment. A few years back the SCOTUS ruled that cartoon dipictions of sex are protected speech -- even when they depict children. In this case it's a misnomer because anime often dipicts people as being younger than they are.

2.) The postmaster does not have the right to view other peoples mail. He can verify there are no illegal chemicals, foods, anthrax ect... but he or she IS NOT allowed to read or watch mail belonging to other people.

3.) This guy is going to be VERY wealthy when his case gets thrown out and he sues the sorry assholes, which include the State and Federal government, for all they are worth.

Clearly, the moral majority have just ****ed themselves yet again.
 
I'm not sure why everyone is so up in arms over this at this point. He faces up to 20 years if found guilty. The case hasn't even happened yet, so he hasn't even been found guilty.

We don't know all the facts of the case yet, and we don't know the situation fully.

Because the case is real simple. It doesn't matter what the manga was about, it's manga. It's drawn, there are no real people. He shouldn't be placed through the ringer or even have the chance to face 20 years in prison. This is a non-crime and there is no reason to force someone to spend time and money, possibly lose their job, create all sorts of inconvenience for a non-crime. This is not the government's business, and this is not within their power.
 
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