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Appeals Court Upholds Ban On Pseudo-Kiddie Porn

bmasel writes "The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has become the third federal appeals court to uphold a federal law expanding the definition of child pornography to include computer-generated images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct -- even if the images only appear to be of a minor." Once upon a time, the justification for bans on child pornography was that such a ban would reduce the abuse of children. Now the justification has changed to something along the lines of "These are ugly pictures, and so we should ban them." It's a major change, but the courts are supporting it.

3 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. LIke it or not ... by OmegaDan · · Score: 4
    Like it or not, kiddy porn is pretty much an acid test of our rights ...

    I don't think anyone would disagree with the statement that its wrong to abuse children...

    But kiddy porn, is, just data. its 1's and 0's ... the fact that the court choses to view some 1's and 0's as kiddy porn, others as constitutionally protected speach, others as renegade code for pirating DVD's, and yet others as pattented (ie gif's) -- is wrong.

    I feel in the long run its an abridgment of my rights not to be able to have ceartin types of data in my posession ... its all just data! If they want to stop child abuse -- stop drug use, which is responsible for something 80% of child abuse. It always easy to ring the kiddy porn bell for political reasons ... most people hate it, and those who don't, aren't very vocal :)

    I'd like to see a couple ammendments to the constitution, something along the lines of the universal turing principle right ... the right to execute any algorithim! And the right to have to have any bit string (with modest exemptions for copyrighted material for say, 5 years :)

    The measure of our freedom is now how we treat the speach we like, but how we tolerate the speach we hate.

    1. Re:LIke it or not ... by tewl · · Score: 4

      If they want to stop child abuse -- stop drug use, which is responsible for something 80% of child abuse.

      Not sure that I agree with you there....where did you get that statistic?

      As a child I suffered from both physical and sexual abuse. After being in touch with hundreds if not thousands of people who also were on the receiving end of such atrocious behavior, it was very rare for it to be due to drugs.

      What drives pedophiles to commit such acts is usually a mental disorder or even a hormonal inbalance. True, drugs can makes these worse, but they are there from the start.

  2. ...a dose of reality. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5
    This is truly awesome (not in the common definition of awesome). I mean .. this is truly disheartening.

    If you are offended by people's opinions which differ substantially from the norm, please move along to the next comment. You may become as ill as I did, reading the article. :)

    This law is almost beyond comprehension to me, a person who identifies with people stricken with pedophilia. You see, I used to be a gay basher. I used to make fun of fags all the time. They seriously used to scare me. One day, I found out that one of my best friends was gay.

    It was like a blow to the mind. I was like.. holy shit. Man.. what should I do? This faggot .. this stupid shitpacking faggot is my best friend. Does that make me a fag too?

    You have to understand. I was only 15.. and people made fun of me for being slightly overweight. Any chance I'd get to poke fun at a group of people, I'd do it - this raised my own status. Anyway... In the course of a few seconds (which seemed like an eternity).. I realised that I was a stupid person. I was the one who was derranged - attacking something because it was popular to do so. My friend told me what it was like. And I accepted that. Bam.. just like that. It's like.. something you believe in your heart - something you'd beat up someone for.. something which inspires your hate so much.. it was all so wrong.

    I'm grown up now. And I found out that one of my other friends I had known for years has an attraction to young girls. I was searching through his hard disk for mp3s (while he was out pickin up a case of beer) and found some .jpg's that were poorly hidden. You know what?

    I used to hate on pedophiles too, cause that was the hip thing to do. But instead of barfing at the thought, I checked them out. Hmm. Not much to comment on. Most were pictures of girls, clothed, non clothed, a few engauged in 'sexual acts'. None of them violent, or even what (if it were older people) any would consider reprehensible.

    Ok.. so I'm faced with a decision. Do I pick up the phone and call the cops on a friend? No. Cause that .. just .. ain't .. cool. Instead, I closed it all, sat on his couch, waited for him to get home, then carefully asked him about it.

    You know what I found?

    He's still a pretty decent guy.

    He told me about this realization that he came to when he was like 16. That he found younger girls more attractive. He told me about the frustration he went through for years; something this horrible beyond comprehension is nigh impossible to even *discuss* with other people. I mean... not confess, discuss .

    I was the first person (outside the Internet) who found out about this hidden reality.

    Were this channel .. this.. doorway of the Internet, unfettered, private communications, unavailable, he would have lived his entire life in miserable silence. No one deserves that, for being something. Not niggers, not faggots, not jews, ... not anything that people, without provocation, are able to hate. Like that.

    My friend has never, and does not plan to ever have sexual contact with a real child, with or without consent.

    Ok - so.. the moral of the story. :)

    Please. Stop the hatered. Stop the propaganda. Stop the fanatacism. Not all 'fags' are rapists. Not all niggers are counterproductive banes on society, and not all pedophiles are child molesters.

    This law is intended to punish people for what they are . Not what they do. - Posting anonymously, for obvious reasons.