During SPX, Tea Fougner, John Boeck, and I interviewed Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund about the Christopher Handley case. Handley is a collector who was taken to jail for a few hentai items in his vast manga collection (see press release below). It’s important listening. If anybody would like to help us out by making a transcript, I’ll be happy to post it here.

Meanwhile, you can download the MP3 or subscribe to the feed to listen to this podcast.

Press release:

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has signed on as a special consultant to the defense of Chistopher Handley, an Iowa collector who faces up to 20 years in prison for possession of manga. The Fund adds its First Amendment expertise to the case, managed by United Defense Group’s Eric Chase, and will also be providing monetary support towards obtaining expert witnesses.

Handley, 38, faces penalties under the PROTECT Act (18 U.S.C. Section 1466A) for allegedly possessing manga that the government claims to be obscene. The government alleges that the material includes drawings that they claim appear to be depictions of minors engaging in sexual conduct. No photographic content is at issue in Handley’s case.

“Handley’s case is deeply troubling, because the government is prosecuting a private collector for possession of art,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “In the past, CBLDF has had to defend the First Amendment rights of retailers and artists, but never before have we experienced the Federal Government attempting to strip a citizen of his freedom because he owned comic books. We will bring our best resources to bear in aiding Mr. Handley’s counsel as they defend his freedom and the First Amendment rights of every art-loving citizen in this country.”

Mr. Handley’s case began in May 2006 when he received an express mail package from Japan that contained seven Japanese comic books. That package was intercepted by the Postal Inspector, who applied for a search warrant after determining that the package contained cartoon images of objectionable content. Unaware that his materials were searched, Handley drove away from the post office and was followed by various law enforcement officers, who pulled him over and followed him to his home. Once there, agents from the Postal Inspector’s office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Special Agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and officers from the Glenwood Police Department seized Handley’s collection of over 1,200 manga books or publications; and hundreds of DVDs, VHS tapes, laser disks; seven computers, and other documents. Though Handley’s collection was comprised of hundreds of comics covering a wide spectrum of manga, the government is prosecuting images appearing in a small handful.

Putting the case into context, Burton Joseph, CBLDF’s Legal Counsel says, “In the lengthy time in which I have represented CBLDF and its clients, I have never encountered a situation where criminal prosecution was brought against a private consumer for possession of material for personal use in his own home. This prosecution has profound implications in limiting the First Amendment for art and artists, and comics in particular, that are on the cutting edge of creativity. It misunderstands the nature of avant-garde art in its historical perspective and is a perversion of anti-obscenity laws.”

Eric Chase and his team at the United Defense Group have been vigorously defending Handley, and scored a major First Amendment victory earlier this year when the judge found portions of the PROTECT Act unconstitutional in his ruling on a motion to dismiss. District Judge Gritzner of the Southern District of Iowa found that subsections 1466(a)(2) and (b)(2) of 18 U.S.C. 1466A unconstitutional. Those sections make it a crime to knowingly produce, distribute, receive, or possess with intent to distribute, “a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting,” that “is, or appears to be” a minor engaged in sexual conduct. Judge Gritzner found that those sections restrict protected speech and are constitutionally infirm.

Handley now faces charges under the surviving sections of 1466A, which will require a jury to determine whether the drawings at issue are legally obscene. The material cannot be deemed obscene unless it meets all three of the criteria of the Miller test for obscenity: “(a) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” The jury must answer all three questions in the affirmative in order to convict.

Eric Chase recognized the importance of the case, and of the CBLDF’s contribution to it, in a statement to the CBLDF: “This case represents the latest in a string of efforts by the Department of Justice to encroach on free speech. The United Defense Group is committed to fighting to maintain the protections guaranteed in the Constitution, and we appreciate the CBLDF’s support in this fight.”

When I was in kindergarten, I was kicked out of class for drawing pictures of my teacher naked with no head. In the second grade, I was sent to the principal’s office for sending a cafeteria worker a birthday card showing the school burning down captioned “fuck you.” My fifth grade history teacher told me I belonged in a mental institution because my coat-of-arms art project was too gruesome.*

So, there’s a special place in my heart for this story about a seven-year-old’s school preparing him for a lifetime as a misunderstood artist:

Kyle Walker, 7, was suspended last week for violating Dennis Township Primary School’s zero-tolerance policy on guns … Kyle gave the picture to another child on the school bus, and that child’s parents complained about it to school officials, [the dudes' mom] said. Her son told her the drawing was of a water gun …

Kyle drew other pictures, including a skateboarder, King Tut, a ghost, a tree and a Cyclops …”

King Tut skateboarding with a Cyclops? Kyle if you’re reading this, get me your serializer submission …

* And I’d love to hear your tales of elementary art school discipline in comments.

- Eric

AT&T censors Pearl Jam’s criticism of Bush:

When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them. … the following lyrics were sung to the tune of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” but were cut from the webcast: “George Bush, leave this world alone.” (the second time it was sung); and “George Bush find yourself another home.”

And Kent officer tickets man for ‘Impeach Bush’ sign:

A soft-spoken teacher posted the words “Impeach Bush” in a public garden, and Kent police cast him as an outlaw. … Police ticketed Egler for unlawfully advertising in a public place because he put up a free-standing sign … Egler said the officer who cited him July 25 asked: “Why don’t you put the signs in your own yard?” Egler said his response was that he’s a taxpayer and views the public space very much as his yard.

The BYU student newspaper has an editorial explaining that they run some extremely cutting edge, controversial comics:

Currently, The Daily Universe includes six comic strips: Zits, Garfield, Get Fuzzy, Peanuts, Frank & Ernest and Dilbert, and two one-panel comics: Ziggy and Non Sequitur.

Which of course means they have to protect their readers from the dangerous ideas contained within:

Judgment calls are made every day here at the paper and sometimes the strip for the day needs to be pulled for content, usually for “taking the Lord’s name in vain, sexual content and bathroom humor,” said Nicole Smith, advertising production supervisor for The Daily Universe. When this happens, a comic strip, usually from the previous Saturday, is inserted, sometimes causing a sequence problem in the story line. To prevent this from happening so often, several of the current comics will be replaced with less objectionable ones.

And of course this censorship of Garfield’s sexy sacrilegious toilet humor is justified by insulting and trivializing the views of its readers and the entire comics medium:

Whatever The Daily Universe decides to run instead of the current comics, let’s just all get along. Before you get your socks in a knot about the issue, remember – they’re just comics. And of course, there’s always Sudoku and the crossword.

Hey, what’s a seven-letter word for “fuckoff”?

Update: OK, I think I found the panel that probably started this:

- Eric

BBC:

The level of state-led censorship of the net is growing around the world, a study of so-called internet filtering by the Open Net Initiative suggests. The study of thousands of websites across 120 Internet Service Providers found 25 of 41 countries surveyed showed evidence of content filtering. … A number of states in Europe and the US were not tested because the private sector rather than the government tends to carry out filtering, it said. Countries which carry out the broadest range of filtering included Burma, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, the study said.

- Eric

Last month me, Randy Milholland, Rob Balder, and The Ferrett talked about our experiences with this sort of thing on a panel called How To Offend An Audience. I got this today from a reader or I guess potential reader:

I tried to check out your site from work but was barred from it by surf control. It lists the site as “vulgar/sexually explicit”…

I have three questions, and I assume y’all’ll have brilliant answers:

1) How does one get themselves on and off such lists?
2) How prevalent is the use of such lists?
3) How is the American worker expected to succeed without dead fetus romance comics?

- Eric M.