Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
charles brown stains the executive director of the comic book a legal
defense fund and we've been talking over the last week the story of a man
arrested going into canada with manga on his laptop ah... depicting what canadian
authorities are calling child *** of latest report suggests
the men could face at least one year in prison and the comic book legal defense
fund is mounting a campaign to defend this man whose identity as far as i know
charles to still be bening taint
private tell me how you got involved in this case had you hear about it
big individual in question restock terrace asking for help but it's a
simple sa and we're a defense fund that specializes in checking the first
amendment rights of the comics are or
for twenty five years we've been protecting retailers we've been
protecting
publishers in protecting artist and this is
one of the disturbing new trend where we're seeing government forties go after
readers and
our board of directors when we heard from
from the individual decided that
process is something we've got a fight
let's get to this the specifics of this case in the second one of the most
common types of cases you've gotten involved in since you've been executive
director
have been at the fun for about nine years now and one of the things that
uh... we've seen a nap time as a share from the traditional order cases where
retailers are being targeted by
police officers are local uh... uh... local prosecution authorities to
are senator stains to prosecute people for selling adult comic books to adults
so we'll see
people being gone after four material elected sexuality
we've seen a generation of cases that we fought in court and one where
the laws have been trying to the government to the trying to broaden
the definition of obscenity conclude violence that we fought be on albums
this is
restart of the new ship where we're seeing a lot of course manhattan
government authorities go after individuals for the possession of our
that they are man it's very disturbing
so is your position and i don't want the words in your mouth but he is your
position that
whatever is depicted in in comic book style given that it is fiction sherwood
not have any legal repercussions whatsoever period is the is it that
simple
individuals should not be prosecuted for owning making or or reading our work now
and with this particular case
uh... are what is at the root of this issue my reading of it is that there are
some laws of japan has a law and there are other similar laws that say that
any depiction of child *** specifically
even if it is completely fictional is still does still qualify as child
*** even though there is no specific
victim what's the specific line canada
kearsarge repeat the question
in canada what is it what specifically governs this type of of material
what we're seeing in this case is a very irregular currency and matt
we're seeing costumes the forties making any
threshold determination that it doesn't appear they can properly trained on hand
indicating that work somebody carried on
their laptop computer that
they search for reasons that are not only for them
here's what they are alleging to the child *** ad
customs cases traditionally what we see is that
if they are searching materials and researching comics far more frequently
now
they will either
search any
the person in the picture of the country they were either
search and denying the person entry or the material entry into the country this
is a new report never seeing that they are prosecuting somebody and alleging
that
art that you carry for his prior reading on his computer
is importation of child *** because it's trying to prepare your
regular
and disturbing case and hopefully not start of a trend
argument that i was you know when we first mention this last week i received
hundreds of emails about this from our audience and most of them
were pretty clear and that they believe that this was this is not a legitimate
case and they made the argument for example
robbing banks is illegal therefore what a comic book depicting the robbing of a
bank also be a legal no very few people would make that case the one that sticks
l in my mind is and this is really a u_s_ thing with the patriot act if we
could make the argument that a comic book was specifically promoting or
inciting terrorism i think that they would be not personally but this based
on my reading of the patriot act there could be real legal repercussions there
do you see that as possibly opening up the door to say will listen
even though no child was harmed in the making of these magazines somebody who
enjoys this
could arguably be incited to take this over into the real world and again i'm
just completely speculating here based on some of the emails i've gotten is
that the biggest danger you see the biggest point you see your opponents
making on this
you know i heard those media facts are
immense beer atheistic ads violent material in terms of
video games in comic books are current
and they had never seen anything persuasive in the media fax arguments to
show that people that
takin
man any kind of media
actually commit the crimes depicted there but on the child ***
question i think it's very important to recognize that the state government
interested in the united states and canada
of anti child *** laws is too
protect real people that are being are begin the process of aquinas crime
child *** is photographic evidence of the crime and to broaden
that definition
to include work that depicts the sexuality of minors
is to in some ways diminish
the people that are victims of the real crime and it's a dangerous slippery
slope to prosecute people for the content
what is happening
in their minds when they regarding to complete that
with the actual abuse they suffered by real people
and when i see cases like the ones that we're working to help and in canada
i see government resources being misspent and going out for somebody who
appreciates our tradition that has different taboos from the ones we have
here in north america
and
knows resources are not going after the
prosecution of real criminals and it's a real average
my last night on this would be as a lot of these drawings become better in terms
of quality in detail such that they could be considered so-called pseudo
photographs in other words to the untrained diary quick glance
it may be indistinguishable from a real photograph we still wouldn't have a
specific victim that can be identified because again
it isn't the picture of a real person but that may not be noble from taking a
quick look at it does that present additional legal challenges
i'm sure that these are things
that will need to be litigated in court but i think again the realign the stand
here
has to be
was a real person harm the government interest in these laws is too
protect real people from abuse and exploitation
not to prosecute people for having creepy thoughts hands
we don't know y
goes on in the minds of people that
are reading
some of the comics across the sky blue lines from japan's
jim from japan
a lot of times what we see it comic art and an art
is a poor specter of expression ranging from
be exploration uh...
mainstream topics in themes like a real shrouds comics about
coming up and being a sexually confused teenager finding her passport the people
are his comments about *** abuse
and things that have a legitimacy in our culture
we say those things being at much at risk as
comics that are coming from japan that are wonderfully illustrated and talking
about the fever dreams attackers back walter
because somebody appreciates this kind of work does not make them a criminal
does not make them a danger to people in their community and i think that we
really
need to be focusing our law enforcement on
chair of the people that are actually in danger had
prosecuting the people that are actually harming real people so
will things become
more detailed will the technology create an issue
maybe but i think that we need to always remained at the heart of the matter
these laws to protect real people
not protected not to prosecute
the fop people out
trolls brownstein executive director of the comic book legal defense fund at
banks for joining us and we will keep an eye on the case and check in with it
actor alligator thanks so much