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A common misconception. Porn is not illegal in the UK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_Internet_pornography http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/faqvideo.htm

Indeed, the cartoon porn law is mad - and it's particularly mad that it also uses 18 as an age limit (in fact, it even criminalises images of adults, if the predominant impression conveyed is of someone under-18). The definition even includes cases where the drawn 17 year old is fully clothed, but shown in the background of a scene where two adults are having sex. And there are plenty of cases in mainstream material that would come under the law - e.g., Southpark's Proper Condom Use shows Cartman masturbating a dog, an act which is explicitly covered by the law.

The sad thing is that they can't even justify the 18 age limit by saying they were only copying the child porn law, as they weren't. As well as differing definitions, there's the point that child porn law has an exemption if you're married to the person, or live together in a relationship. So it's legal to have sex with a 17 year old, and if you're married it is legal to own a sexual photo of them. But draw a picture of that same act, and you're a criminal, three years in prison!

Another example might be adults role-playing as children (the most obvious example being the cliche of schoolgirls) - I believe that photos of such acts are still legal, and the point is that adults role-playing as children still look like adults in a photograph. But make a drawing - and even if they aren't drawn as particularly young, there is the risk that the fictional "age" of the characters would instead be inferred from the behaviour, what they are wearing, and so on.

There is also the point that this law would criminalise child abuse victims who make a drawing of their own experiences, which AIUI is sometimes used as a means of recovery.

(N.B. - the law hasn't been enacted yet, but comes into force on April 6 - http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/gca10a.htm#Dangerous_Cartoons_4308 - just a few days left to encrypt your hentai!)

It's the same in the UK - I find it ridiculous, but most people don't care if it doesn't affect them.

Recently, the law which allowed this censorship - the Video Recordings Act 1984 - was found to have never been enacted. Did we get a chance to redebate this issue, now that the "video nasties" scaremongering of the 80s (which led to this law) was no longer around? Hell no. Instead we got a load of media scaremongering again, about how this law not being valid would mean porn would be sold to small children (not just tabloids, even the BBC were at it). The Government then brought in "emergency legislation" to enact the law as quickly as possible - it was rushed through the entire process in just over a month!

(And things look to get worse with the Digital Economy Bill, which will allow the Government to revoke a rating even after it's been granted!)

But that account is wrong:

http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/storymf00554.htm

"Contrary to what the New York Times reported, the publisher did not change its mind, nor did Amazon cave to pressure. Rather, Amazon was notified that copyrighted material was being sold on the Amazon store without permission and it removed said material."

So we are back to the stolen goods scenario. Someone sold Amazon ebooks that they did not hold the rights to. Amazon was itself a victim.

Amazon can't legally resell stolen goods.

Having done so, they certainly don't gain the right to steal them back from kindle owners. They should have just paid the royalty to the rightful copyright holder and be done with it.

British movie/game ratings are pretty simple.

There is:

U - Universal - suitable for all

PG - Parental Guidance

12/12A - for videos, nobody under age 12 is allowed to purchase it. for movies shown in a cinema, under twelves can watch it if they are accompanied by an adult.

15 - suitable for 15+

18 - suitable for 18+

R18 - Restricted 18 - basically porn. Can only be shown in specially licensed venues and sold only in licensed sex shops.

'E' is on some videos. It's not actually a rating, but it's just a symbol put on by video producers to specify that the film is exempt from rating. Things like videos of sports matches, musical performances, educational videos don't get rated. Most imported videos

The BBFC also now produce some text that accompanies the rating symbol which broadly gives the reason why the film is rated that way. For instance, it might say "Contains frequent strong bloody violence and very strong language" next to an 18 certificate.

They introduced R18 a few years ago when they realised that hardcore porn was mostly being circulated through the black market and by people distributing copied tapes. Of course, now, we have the new rules on "violent and extreme" pornography which actually makes it a crime to possess pornography that depicts violent scenarios - rape fantasies, that kind of stuff. With one hand, the government make porn a bit more legal, and with the other hand, they've created a new black market that the Internet supplies.

The BBFC is generally, imo, pretty fair - I mean, as fair as a bunch of censoring, free-speech-restricting thugs can be. Perhaps it's just bias living here, but BBFC seem to get it right a lot more often than the MPAA ratings do, and they are a hell of a lot less squeamish about depiction of sex and nudity - they make a distinction for 'natural nudity' where it's non-sexual, so we don't have idiotic philistines sticking big blocky pixels over Dürer woodcuts, Titian paintings and Michaelangelo's David (etc.) because they've got HUR HUR HUR DONGS LOL. There's an interesting set of articles by people who have worked at BBFC, describing exactly what it's like censoring movies and video games for a living.

but guys, myself included, routinely joke about checking ID before sleeping with a chick for good reason.

Indeed, though despite the problems with age of consent, it is at least an objective test than can, in principle, be checked.

When it comes to a drawing, to quote Melon Farmers, How the fuck are we expected to know how old she is?

Is there some authoritary one can go to do verify the age of a cartoon character? No, there's only the police and a jury - get it wrong, and you get three years in prison. Get it right, and you still might risk the ordeal and stress of a trial (being arrested, having all electronic equipment taken away for months "for searching", being shunned as a "pervert" and "child pornographer", perhaps having your children - your actual children - being taken into care).

They use quite a lot of tricks to censor films. For example, they will sometimes pass the film back to distributor with notes explaining why they cannot pass the film at the requested certificate. The best bit? The distributor makes the changes as specifies and then resubmits the film which is then passed. The BBFC then report that they didn't have to make any cuts.

It gets even better as the distributor (notice that I didn't say, "the film makers") have a rough idea of the what the BBFC will and wont allow at each certificate. This means that they cut it to BBFC rules in advance.

Note that the UK doesn't have an X certificate.

Using this policy, the BBFC gets away with censoring everything while claiming that they hardly ever have to make cuts.

Don't get me started on their procedures, criteria for "obscenity" and the qualifications of their staff.

Melon Farmers used to be the best site for monitoring the BBFC although I haven't used it for a while.

...the plugin routes you through a Chinese proxy. I can't imagine this open proxy will last long.

Either that, or the Chinese government was the one that set up the proxy, the Chinese government will strongly advise Chinese travelers to install that plugin, and it will start scanning laptops and cell phones for any sign of illegal content/web sites whenever Chinese people reenter their country. That being said, I'm probably just being freaking paranoid. A country like China could never be as repressive, no country could ever go that far.

Standard Soho Clip Joint Scam

I believe the alterations were made by Alex Cox, the director, himself, in response to the BBC's request for cuts so that it could be shown. So he decided to go completely and humorously over-the-top in censoring his own film, partly to make a point, one suspects.

See http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/faqmf.htm

It's been done, but the other way around. The US version of Kubrick's last film, "Eyes Wide Shut", had a scene censored in the US, because the MPAA ratings board didn't like the way some characters "moved" while having sex. AFAIK, the US DVD release is censored, while the overseas version is not.

More information here, here, and here.

My mistake - it was recently given one after the BBFC had stalled for a while (just doing a search on Yahoo for BBFC and Exorcist came up with the links)

This appears to be a good link on the subject. Certainly it was unavailable for a very long time because the BBFC refused to grant it a certificate. Thankfully they relented.