Manga Translator Appeals Child Pornography Charges

[C117]

I...um...huh.


Aren't Swedes suppose to NOT act like neo-con religious wackjobs?

Normally, yes. But when something that could potentially be considered child pornography rears its ugly head, we try to stop it down into the black void from whence it came.

My opinion? I live in Sweden, and I think this whole case is absolute b*llocks. Heck, I even wrote an entire essay on the matter for my school paper, and the gist of the problem is that the law for child pornography is rather poorly worded. Basically any picture containing a character (not child, character) who might be seen as, or is stated to be, 18 years old or less in the nude, is child pornography. I'm a collector of manga, and roughly 70 % of my collection (all of which I've bought in my local, legal comic store) contains something that, by the definition given by the law, can be considered child pornography.

Though, the law does have a loophole that allows more highbrowed works (paintings, regular comics, etc.) a pass from the judge: a work is not considered child pornography if it has "artistic worth".

...

Let me ask some perfectly valid questions; who is to say these works don't have artistic worth? And why should it make such a difference, when we can walk into any random museum and watch a picture of a child getting molested, sitting on the wall on full display? Does this law cover fictional characters who're not human, but just look the part? Why is the limit for child pornography 18 years, when our age of consent is 15? Why does the court rack down on these relatively harmless manga pictures, when they could be using their resources to judge ACTUAL child pornography crimes? And why is depicting naked children in drawn pictures so taboo, when it is perfectly fine to depict it in books, music, and other forms of so-called "art"?

Our child pornography laws need a bit of a cleanup...

 

[newwiseman]

So a country where the age of consent is 15 is bent out of shape by some drawings? Are they trying to suggest they're not interested in young ladies while picking up High School girls for a night out?

 

[hino77]

Interesting, its been a while since something else than gaming had a story so retarded centerd around them. Yay? Ok ill shut up now.

 

[The Funslinger]

Manga Translator Appeals Child Pornography Charges

According to the Swedish courts, cartoon characters are people too.

I'll believe cartoons are people when Texas executes one.

Here's the next best thing!

 

[CrystalShadow]

-sigh-. Welcome to the european mentality.

This same logic applies in England too. (And australia, probably one of the worst offenders in how far they take that idea, since you can be proscecuted for 'child pornography' even if it is 100% provable you have a picture of someone over 18. If, by some nebulous ill-defined standard it 'looks' like a picture of a child - or more accurately in most cases, a teenager, you can still get charged.)

I don't know where this comes from, but it's a growing trend worldwide that I feel may ultimately be counterproductive.

By all means take action to protect real children. But trying to take on any depiction that may vaguely hint at something child-like seems like a recipe for disaster, and a wasted effort overall.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

So a country where the age of consent is 15 is bent out of shape by some drawings? Are they trying to suggest they're not interested in young ladies while picking up High School girls for a night out?

Puh-lease brotha, ladies are like fruit. You can't pick em too early, you can't pick em too late. You gotta pick em when they're juuuuust right.

By which I mean, no, we do not sex little girls as a national sport. Generally the only ones picking up high school girls would be high school boys.

Anyway, this case scared me a little. Because this man has done nothing wrong. He wasn't even the one that made these drawings, he works as a translator. Even if we just illegalise this sort of fetish, can it be proven that he had these drawings for sexual pleasure rather than to you know, translate them?

It scares me a little a little that my government thinks it can just up and arrest nowadays. Between this, people killing old ladies and getting to walk, and people defending old ladies and being jailed for one and a half years. I have little trust in it anymore. Unless you drive just slightly tipsy. In which case I'm pretty sure they just take you behind the barn and shoot you.


Also people let's get real, Sweden dose have federal agents. Because it's not a fedearation.

 

[antipunt]

This...is

..well...

this doesn't really make any sense to me..

at all.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I didn't know a forum thread could make me hate anime more than I already do, but this one did it. I don't know anything about Swedish law (though Maxxn's clarification is helpful), but I do know that the internet is fond of defending this kind of stuff. If that's what you're into, more power to you, but I'll just keep my distance.

 

[Mousse Templar]

ehh, in 1995 the owners of Planet Comics in Oklahoma City

faced 86 years of jail over Iron Devil #2.(by Frank Thorne)

This is not new, or limited to sweden

or loli-stuff.

 

[wottabout]

Hasn't this happened before, in australia? There was a big hoo ha when they found som guy downloading porn of the simpsons, and they put him in jail for a year.
(If anyone can find that article or back me up, please do and assure me it's not just the voices in my head falsely giving me information. Again)

I actually did a paper once on simulated child pornography, so I have quick access to an article on that, and more!

http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/20/the-simpsons-skins-and-child-p
The guy was Steven Kutzner of Idaho, and he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for possession of obscene material (i.e. images of the Simpsons having sex). He also had actual child pornography.

Similarly, in 2009 Mike Diana [http://comipress.com/special/miscellaneous/down-the-slippery-slope-the-crime-of-viewing-manga] case from 1994, where a guy drew some pretty darn obscene comics of various kinds and was sentenced with three years probation, a $3,000 fine, no contact with minors, and random searches of his house for obscene drawings.

 

[LilithSlave]

For some reason lolicons and lolicon supporter blaming always seem to be blaming feminists for their plight in things. As if the fact that a few feminists target paedophiles, like practically ever group in the world, is suddenly a pillar of the movement. I'm sorry, but there's no one group responsible for this.

I have real life friends who are lolicons and shotacons and all sorts of creepers. Heck, I kinda feel a bit like one myself sometimes in that I'm not super fond of secondary sex characteristics. Lolicon definitely creeps me out sometimes, and it's even present is Shoujo manga I read like Honey and Clover. I particularly don't like it when they're so blatant about it like with Loveless, and the characters are clearly stated and portrayed to be minors. All of my friends love Loveless, it's like the most famous BL manga ever. But is features, like, literal paedophilia! Ritsuka is like, 12! People say it doesn't matter if they're stated to be 100 years old and given adult status and personality and the like, but it does! It matters a lot! It's a lot less creepy!

Yeah, I'm okay with this sort of thing in degrees. But I can't lie and say I don't worry about it in some ways. Like sexualizing characters that are clearly intended to be minors in ever respect. And fetishizing innocence and virginity and emotional weakness and the like. In fact I would have liked Honey and Clove a lot more and been a lot more okay with Hagu being a loli, if they didn't make her personality so childish. And Kobato can at least appeal to the moe fans and DFC lovers without be super short.

I don't think that this sort of material is going to lead to the molestation of children and should be illegal, though. I feel sick to my stomach though when I hear some people calling adult women disgusting and how they like lolis because they're "more innocent" and "not nasty sluts".

At my time at this site, I've actually been surprised at how little "anime" sort of stuff is talked about. Consider this is a video game site and Japanese culture and anime has had a huge impact on the video game industry. Kinda cool when articles like this pop up. Many of the users here may not have heard of Touhou, but at least one of the moderators has!

 

[ResonanceSD]

Manga Translator Appeals Child Pornography Charges

According to the Swedish courts, cartoon characters are people too.

I'll believe cartoons are people when Texas executes one.

Texas: "Challenge accepted!"

It's truly a depressing read. My tax money is being wasted on this absolute tripe, and there's nothing i can do to stop it.

You're swedish?

All things aside, I don't like any manga at all, so this is particularly "bleurgh" as a medium. However, if this is the most important thing that's going through the courts right now, Sweden's getting off pretty lightly compared to Norway.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I'm tempted to side with the courts just because this lolicon business is really, REALLY fuckin' creepy, but those arguments are ridiculous. Their arguments SHOULD have been something like, "We're talking about pictures of children displayed in an erotic manner. That makes it child porn. End of fucking story."

 

[lapan]

Arresting people for fictional pictures or stories definitely is the wrong way to go aboput it. Neither is robbing pedophiles of a nonharmful way to act out their sexuality. for all we know this could be driving them to real childpornography since they see no more legal way to release their sexuality anymore.

The prosecution, however, argued that the images could be used to entice children into performing sexual acts, and even went as far as to suggest the artists involved in the work could have used real children as models.

"And even a drawing could be of a real child," said prosecutor, Hedvig Trost. "A photo depicting a real child could have been used to make the drawing. It is hard from the outside to know whether there is an original photo or not."

That's just silly, manga drawings aren't that realistic.

I'm tempted to side with the courts just because this lolicon business is really, REALLY fuckin' creepy, but those arguments are ridiculous. Their arguments SHOULD have been something like, "We're talking about pictures of children displayed in an erotic manner. That makes it child porn. End of fucking story."

It's DRAWINGS of FICTIONAL children. Nobody is getting hurt and it definitely doesnt warant being branded as childmolester and years of prison time.

 

[lancar]

It's truly a depressing read. My tax money is being wasted on this absolute tripe, and there's nothing i can do to stop it.

You're swedish?

If I wasn't I wouldn't have said that, now would I?

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Wait, I'm confused. He was a paid manga translator. ... am I wrong, or does it sound like he got arrested for translating manga his job assigned him, and then got FIRED from that job?

That's either serious hypocrisy on the part of his employer, or I've missed a key detail here.

 

[SpaceBat]

see, i live in netherlands, we have a pedophile association here. no, i shit you not, they even have a clubhouse as far as i know. and its 100% legal! iirc they even were going for elections!

Dutch guy here. Wasn't that association banned and those guys put on a watch list? If the association actually still exists, I'm going to throw up.

 

[Neonit]

see, i live in netherlands, we have a pedophile association here. no, i shit you not, they even have a clubhouse as far as i know. and its 100% legal! iirc they even were going for elections!

Dutch guy here. Wasn't that association banned and those guys put on a watch list? If the association actually still exists, I'm going to throw up.

"well, as long as they do nothing illegal everything is ok!"
is the most recent statement afaik.
so yeah, they are an association advocating pedo's, but that doesnt mean they are ones. stupid logic i know, but what are you gonna do about it
but im pretty sure they are "watched" more, if they are not, SOMEONE is not doing their job properly.