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Canadian Charges Against US Manga Reader Dropped
tverbeek writes "The U.S.-based Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Canada-based Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund have announced that the Canadian government has withdrawn all criminal charges in R. v. Matheson, a case which involved a U.S. citizen who was arrested and faced criminal charges in Canada relating to manga found on his computer when he entered the country. Customs agents declared the illustrations of fictional characters to be 'child pornography.' The defendant, a 27-year-old comic book reader, amateur artist, and computer programmer, has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. Despite financial assistance from the CBLDF and CLLDF, he has an outstanding debt of $45K for his defense."
If you drop charges from the case then you should pay the legal fees for the defense. Or is this up to the judge?
Legal systems aren't any fun to ever get involved with.
gee, only $45,000 in debt
From the press release: "Moreover, they should also be aware that although anime and manga is legal in many areas of the United States and Japan, etc., to possess and utilize..."
The hell? Makes it sound like all anime and manga have naked children in them. Also, Matheson didn't get off scot-free: "Mr. Matheson has agreed to plead to a non-criminal code regulatory offense under the Customs Act of Canada."
I knew that it would be best to leave my laptop at home when entering Canada. Even the Canadian customs officer, who was very nice, said, "That was a wise decision".
the important bit from the actual article.
"Mr. Matheson has agreed to plead to a non-criminal code regulatory offense under the Customs Act of Canada. As a result of the agreement, Matheson will not stand trial. The defense of this case was waged by Michael Edelson and Solomon Friedman of Edelson Clifford D’Angelo LLP. The full Notices of Application detailing Edelson’s defense and outlining the outrageous and unlawful treatment Matheson endured are available here: Charter Notice and Jan 15 12 – Matheson Charter Notice."
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
As distasteful as it may be in the case of images produced with the intent to be a form of child pornography, it sickens me to see artificially-produced images classified as child pornography. It opens the door to criminally penalizing people for something which must be judged based solely on opinion. There cannot be an objective judgment that an artificially-produced image constitutes "underage pornography," and criminal penalties should be based as closely on objectivity as possible.
These resources should be directed toward finding and jailing people who produce child pornography using actual children, not those who produce images which require (sometimes highly) subjective interpretation.
People have been arrested in the US for the very same offense as the guy from TFA -- possession of illegal manga.
Palm trees and 8
Most importantly, donate to the CBDL to help pay the bills! http://cbldf.org/
No crime committed.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Child sex abuse imagery is illegal because producing it involves sexually abusing children, not because images of child abuse happen to offend most people. If no children are being abused, then what is the logic for making the cartoons illegal?
Palm trees and 8
Yes, we are well aware of how a plea bargain is used as extortion to force people to accept a charge they are innocent of when they cannot afford a proper defense or are afraid of the kangaroo court. Often it's used as an excuse to not pay damages that are ethically owed to the defendant.
If you're crossing a border with ANYTHING on a laptop besides the operating system, you're just asking for trouble. If you need to work in multiple countries or just like to travel a lot, lease, colo, or home-base your own server and keep your stuff there. When you get to your destination, download and install an SCP client, then access the files you need. Download and install TrueCrypt, create an encrypted file, and use that to store local working copies of things as necessary. Download and install a non-factory web browser and use that to access your own secure web mail system.
Before going back across the border, save any work back to your remote server and delete the SCP client, browser, Truecrypt, and the encrypted file. If you're really paranoid, reinstall the OS from the rescue partition.
The secret to staying out of jail is pretty simple - don't be lazy, don't be stupid, don't poke the bear.
Nothing worthwhile ever happens before noon
Yeah right, I'm sure he didn't mind spending nearly 50 thousand dollars to defend himself from something which most people would not consider to be a crime! As for the defense bit, you will have to elaborate, because it is meaningless. Are you saying Canada gives a public defender more easily? Last I heard, you need to be dirt poor to get one, just like in the US, notwithstanding the fact that the accused is not even a citizen of Canada.
It sounds like they didn't provide an adequate defense, because he had to hire $75,000 of lawyers.
And, in the US, you can get a public defender, too. Said public defender is usually about as good at defending as Windows Me is at being a stable, modern, secure operating system.
Given that he's $45K in debt as a result of this, I would guess that he didn't have enough money made available.
Normally, Canada does seem to be more conscientious about this sort of thing, but this seems to have been an exception.
The filename is shijuuhatte-48-positions and if this is child porn then we are all going to hell.
This is from Ryan Matheson's Statement available here: http://cbldf.org/homepage/ryan-mathesons-personal-statement/
"Canada is extremely strict in their customs and immigration process — probably the strictest in the world — and should exercise extreme caution if you travel there."
I agree! In my pervious job I would travel to Canada from Michigan to approve equipment built in Canada from our specifications. This was usually $500,000.00 to $1,000,000.00 USD amount going INTO the Canadian ecomony.
This is how my last three trips went.
1. Entering Canada they pulled me over to be searched. They asked me the same question about 10-15 times trying to get me to say that I was working illegally in Canada without a work permit. I was not and they did not trip me up. They went through all my papers opened every compartment in the car and made a huge mess.
2. For a VACATION to Toronto to spend my own money in Canada I was threatened to be searched and finger printed while I was in the middle of driving about 12 hours after work.
3. On my most recent trip to approve equipment I had no problems. This is because I decided to start over with a new company in the US to build the equipment. If they want to treat me like a criminal then I have no reason to do business there.
As a side note this equipment is destined to other countries around the world so I have some experience with other customs inspections. You can fly to Europe, go to several countries and no one will even ask you why you are there. If you cross to Canada and back from the US expect to be interrogated and searched. BS.
Fuck this scared shit... Here you all go...
http://s582.photobucket.com/albums/ss263/Toxic_Alli101/?action=view¤t=shijuuhatte-48-positions-sd.png&newest=1
Enjoy the horrible child rape porn... (fucking sad)
When you have to cross a border, assume that the customs agent is going to be an under-educated, under-paid, bigotted, rule thumping misanthrope with an axe to grind who's job is essentially workfare for the distant relative of a petty bureaucrat.
I've traveled through North America, Asia, and Europe, and the above statement would apply to 95% of border guards/customs officials I've had to deal with.
1. Travel light.
2. Pack no printed material of any sort - if you're traveling for business, fax, email, or Fedex your documents ahead of you.
3. Computers/Laptops can and will be confiscated on the slightest pretext. You will never see it again. It's an early Christmas/Birthday gift for the Customs Official's kid.
4. Learn the etiquette of bribes for the country you are about to visit, especially in the "in some places its really dumb to try and bribe officials, in others it's an insult not to bribe them" sense.