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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Defense Fund and the Canada-based Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund have announced that the Canadian government has withdrawn all criminal charges in R. v. Matheson, a case which involved a U.S. citizen who was arrested and faced criminal charges in Canada relating to manga found on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.
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)
Your "solution" is actually a pretty bad idea. Almost all customs that I've been through ask you explicitly if you are having anything shipped into the country that you are entering.
I'm not traveling much, but when I was returning from Germany about 10 years ago the customs agent only asked me, as an afterthought, if I bought anything abroad. I had not, and that was all.
Besides, let's assume that you say "yes." What will happen next? Will they refuse you the entry because you shipped a heavy item that you couldn't possibly carry? Will they arrest you for a few days until the shipment arrives and they inspect it? Those are ridiculous scenarios. IMO if you say yes then nothing at all will happen.
Maybe they changed the rules since then. But this question is like "Are you a member of a terrorist organization?" that you need to answer while you are still on the airplane. No sane person would ever answer "yes". A peaceful person will tell the truth, and a terrorist will lie. The question is there just to accuse the terrorist of lying on an official form once he is caught for something else. You can't throw a book at someone unless the book is thick enough.
If you are unable to lie convincingly, this still may be OK. The border guards may suspect that you aren't truthful, but they will have no factual reason to deny you the entry.
However they may not need facts to kick you out. For that reason you have other options. First, ask a friend to ship those things. His name will be on waybills, and you can honestly and truthfully say that you haven't shipped a thing. You can even ask your friend to ship the item AFTER you cross the border and tell him where you are staying. Then you'd be 100% honest at the border.
Second, you can take your laptop with you. There will be a blank HDD in it, with a fresh install of Ubuntu and a recent visit to CNN.com. They can look at it from every direction but there is nothing suspicious there. Once you cross you can copy your VirtualBox files over the Internet and do your thing. Once done, copy it back and reinstall Ubuntu.
My point is that too many people (and I'm often guilty of that myself) are trusting the government. This is bad for your survival. It is quite antisocial, but if you look at everyone as an adversary (most importantly if you do that toward people of power) then you will live longer and be happier. Paranoia is good for your survival. I wouldn't have said that 20 years ago, but now such conclusion is pretty clear.
The laptop story is just an example. You can be caught in many different dragnets, for fun or profit. You can be stopped on a freeway for exceeding the speed, even if you did not. I know where such things happen and don't ever go there. You can be stopped by CHP hiding behind overpasses and in bushes. I know those places and watch my speed there. Many other possibilities exist that may make your life more difficult. An adversarial approach lets you bypass many of these inconveniences. Criminals practice that approach all the time, necessarily. You don't have to be a criminal; however if you see a police car approaching, don't just hang around. The police doesn't give out cookies; all they give out is arrest records, and the best you can hope for is that they leave you alone. Help them with that.
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.