Well, I said it ages ago that this was coming, and people said I was nuts and that it would never happen. However a new law comes into force shortly in the UK (comes into force on January 26th 2009) that will see collectors of the more adult manga (both hentai and non-hentai) possibly facing prosecution.
It comes under the new Criminal Justice Bill, which basically sets out the following criteria:
An act which threatens or appears to threaten a person’s life
An act which results in or appears to result in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals
An act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse
A person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal
The problem that many are having with this bill is the ambiguity. Looking at it from a purely manga aspect, titles such as Black Bible, Discipline, LA Blue Girl, and Urotsukidoji would all become illegal (on the hentai side), where as titles such as Girls Bravo, Witchblade (both manga and Anime) Anne Freaks, Yubisaki Milk Tea, Alice on Deadlines, and Music of Marie, would be considered illegal on the non-hentai side of things.
This is because of the way the legislation is being set out, there’s currently no set definition of how the law is to be interpreted. So what one person would consider normal, is another mans OTT. As was pointed out in the news report on the BBC, even main stream movies, such as certain Bond movies would be considered illegal due to their content (Golden Eye was named)
A lot of people are saying that I’m over reacting and that it would only apply to real life images, sadly this isn’t true. All that is needed is the appearance of a threat for it to be considered illegal.
While it’s true that Hentai will be hardest hit (cause lets face it, which hentai doesn’t have at least some anal sex in it??), normal titles will also be be targeted as well. For example, a while back my post on rape in BL manga that generated such a heated debate comes to mind. Under the new law pretty much 90% of BL manga would be illegal. Anything that contains a rape scene, whether it ends in consensual sex (which BL usually does) would be irrelevant. The fact it contains a bit of rape would make it illegal.
So what would be the consequences of possessing material? The worst punishment is that you’re registered as a sex offender, which pretty much cripples you in the UK. Once you’re on that register you can’t do anything without someone looking over your shoulder, and god forbid you want to leave the country for a holiday >.<
So what can we do? Sadly not a lot anymore, as the law is about to go into it’s final reading, all we can do now is make out voices heard. Join the protests and make sure you MP is aware of your thoughts (that’s what we pay them for!!)
So much for the UK being a free and democratic country, where an Englishman’s home is his castle. We now have the government even telling us what we can look at. And they’re considering implementing remote searching of you’re computer to see if you’re breaking this law!!
But wait, isn’t this law supposedly only targeting rape? Yes it is, however the key word there is supposedly. Due to the laws ambiguity sense such as the one in Golden Eye where the woman gets off killing people with her thighs, would be considered illegal. It’s a very murky area with to much room for ambiguity.
Links
Quick Edit
Someone I was talking to about this on another forum raised a very good point. 99% of any arrests and charges would be over turned on appeal. And sadly I can see this being true, however by then the damage would be done. The person would have been tried in the court of public opinion and found guilty, no matter what any judge says. And the costs to the government would run to hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees. That’s not accounting for anyone who in turn sues the government for breech of their civil and human rights. Something several groups have already stated they would do. In that case the costs could rise to millions of pounds.
Would all of this, in the end, stopped one psycho from killing his or her partner?
January 18, 2009 @ 02:57.
It’s actually a lot worse that it sounds.
If you’re not politically correct, you WILL be charged.
Heck, in that context, that makes the Bible (and ironically enough, the Roman Catholic Church), Greek Mythology, Christian Jacq (yes the books have a fair amount of violence), and pretty much most forms of art, speech, and human behavior.
Taken to it’s extreme, I could charge a person just because he or she exists and can be detrimental to society due to race, skin colour, or even attitude. Because his/her existence is an act that threatens or appears to threaten someone else’s life.
And no, it would not stop one psycho from killing his or her partner. It would stop, though, the very notion of free thought. That’s a lot worse.