I agree there. And especially because of that, we shouldn’t be unduly upsetting people with vague speculation such as that a potential ban on “nonhuman heroines” includes insert favorite fetish here. Well, that kind of speculation is fine for a message board like this, but that blog is getting an awful lot of attention as the most “official” source we have.
We can. In the West this same battle is going on, but in a different medium.
[list]#1: Obscenity
#2: Sexual depiction of minors in fiction[/list]
#1: We need to write to our law makers and local judges, to let them know we feel regulation of obcenity is a violation of the First Amendment. We need to watch and support cases that challenge Miller v. California. It’s not always pornography either: violence is another item that’s labelled under obcenity. Just because you don’t like guro or slasher movies, doesn’t mean we can’t enlist their aid or join forces. Hollywood has a lot of power and influence (who like to make horror movies and challenge the movie rating system from time to time). We could use them… and the porn industry has been fighting hard to figure out ways in getting help in those avenues.
#2: In America we’re actually winning in this battle, since many “lolicon cases” are thrown out - the US Supreme Court has ruled you cannot punish people for real criminal acts, when it comes to fictional work. Lolicon is indeed protected under the Constitution. HOWEVER!!! The Justice Department now prosecutes lolicon as obscenity, because a large number of people find the image of children in sexual intercourse as disgusting. Thus they still punish lolicon… just under a different brand. More so the reason to support #1 above.
Let’s be realistic here… we aren’t going to convince 51% of the population, to suddenly love fictional lolicon and fictional rape. We can however, convince people that punishing others for owning something fictional in the privacy of their own home, is Big Brother taking over. Some methods include pointing out items that are labeled and punished as obscene, are heavy handed or just plain stupid - but it doesn’t have to be rape or violence related. We’re getting a BROAD LAW of obscenity repealed… remember that the law isn’t a surgical tool: it’s a blunt tree trunk. Don’t get specific: stay relatively vague and focus on the definition of “obscenity” itself, not itemized rape eroge or guro stuff. If it get brought up in the discussion, of course mention they’re included too - but because it defends freedom of expression.
It worked for hate speech - and I abhor hate speech - but freedom of expression means letting people hear and see what they want, among those who want to hear and see it. Long as they don’t try to shove it down the throats of those who disagree, we let bygones be bygones. Cops don’t punish people for having Neo-NAZI meetings in their garage. Cops DO punish people for having Neo-NAZI rallies in a Jewish Synagog.
We want the same for obscene material: acceptable in secured privacy or among those who enjoy it, but unacceptable when displayed in the public or among those who would get offended. We’re not asking people to enjoy obscenity: just allow the choice to enjoy if you want it.
Finally… Law #13: When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude. We’re fighting a war against politics and oppression - we gotta recongize it as one to win.
You know, it’s already the case in French laws, and they’re also clear about virtual children not possibly equalling child porn, as long as you can clearly tell they’re virtual and not resembling an actual human being.
So, my possible actions are actually quite limited. 
Sadly my congressman, at least the senator, was voted in are more conservate base. That and I’m very poor at writing letters and presenting my case, except in a more dialogue-driven setting.
In the US, we’re more likely to win the lolicon case in the court than in the legislature. The legislature is the one that passed the ridiculous Protect Act with the virtual child porn clause in the first place–after it’d already been struck down once by the court! They’re not likely to change their mind and repeal it now, with “protect the children” hysteria at an all-time high.
In which case the cause needs lawyers, not moral support.
I’m fine with doing that kind of thing to improve things where I am, but it doesn’t really have much of an effect on Japan. Even if we manage to thoroughly secure our freedom here, it doesn’t secure the situation in Japan. Getting laws passed here won’t dissuade special interests from here attacking where they feel they can still win, and right now our opponents smell the eroge industry’s fear. Unless something can be done there quickly, then our source is gone. That is why I feel like I can’t really do anything.
Remember though, that it was outside pressure that lead to this. Were it not for western thought police, things wouldn’t have turned out like this. It is for this reason that I donate to the CBLDF even though they are only active in the US, since there is no similar organization for the EU (Britain’s Comic Book Alliance doesn’t count, since itself is only active in the UK and I’d rather support a group trying to change things in a country with a lot more pressuring power). If the US and EU were not bullying Japan, things like this wouldn’t have happened and we’d still be enjoying rape and loli-themed games now (well, we still are, but not for long). Argument and demands to ban such material from foreign or even domestic sources seem to be centered around the argument that such things are not acceptable in other developed countries.
Another very possible result of this firestorm is that, regardless of what happens in Japan, there’s bound to be the perception that English-speakers can’t handle erogames that are remotely scandalous. Why agree to license such a game for localization (as a Japanese company) if there’s even a remote possibility it could blow up in your face? Even if all these attempts at regulating the Japanese market fall through, we’re bound to find in the not-so-distant future that our selection of new-release localized games has suddenly become rather sterilized.
That’s why you also write your judges: especially the ones who reside on appeal courts.
Generally speaking: politician do whatever their voters and interest groups “force” them to do. Don’t be fooled by that moral high ground they spout on TV. More than half have done drugs, cheated on their wives, scored poorly on tests in high school, etc. They’re as vice ridden as the rest of us. Neither are all politicians far -wing or hellbent on a single ideological goal. It doesn’t hurt to write to your politician. Not doing anything at all is worst - as is giving up a battle without even fighting it. There would still be second class citizenship in America if people thought that way (ironically American conservatives like to mention that Civil Rights and Women Suffrage were passed with conservative presidents in office, as if the conservative movement granted such rights… lol… Rush Limbaugh is funny sometimes). No one expects the battle to be easy or happen overnight. But you have to at least FIGHT to change something - not sit around and let it change against you.
Plus lawyers aren’t any better than politicians when it comes to loyalty anyways… they generally go for the money, popularity, or winning the case - hence how obviously guilty convicts can get them. Not to say they don’t have values or conviction - some lawyers refuse to defend/prosecute a case they have severe issues against… but don’t rely on them to much. In fact, if I was getting convicted for owning eroge, I might not want a lawyer representing me… obviously I’d want one for legal council and advice - but I think I’d rather defend myself, or find a person who deals specifically with censorship and First Amendment defense.
True… however if the buzz on 2chan is any indication of otaku activity, they’re on their way to begin the uphill battle. Cold as it might sound: let the Japanese worry about Japan for the moment (in terms of fighting their crazy legisature). Because to do a flipside: even if Japan manages to clear the way for rape eroge, it doesn’t mean snot for us non-Japanese when they get banned in our native nation.
Because obscenity laws in America [u]ARE[/u] retroactive (and yet gun restriction laws are not… fancy that :roll: ). Which means if a law is passed saying lolicon sex games are obscene, you’re supposed to destroy your collection the day that judgement is passed. 
Not to mention that it’s because of OUR laws, that Japan has to change THEIR laws. Had we resolved our domestic issues, Japan wouldn’t even be in this fix.
Of course I agree: common sense is paramount when writing politicians. Sending a letter to someone like Michael Steele (Republican Leader) or John McCain (massive lolicon hater) would be a wasted effort.
Here’s a link to an essay on this subject matter that I think should be read:
I took a break from these forums due to school and work commitments, but
after following the news for a few weeks, i realized that there is going to be a shit storm in this forum. So I look and find 10 pages of heated discussion on the topic.
When I saw the whole Rapelay stuff, i just blew it off with “what do these stupid people know anyway?” But then I saw the announcement that rape games will be banned in Japan and I was like “Holy shit no way.” Thankfully, this crap won’t impact the eroge industry that heavily. I can see right now that they are simply trying to protect themselves from the rabid media. I just wonder when will we have riots and protests from the pro-rape eroge people. Oh and doujin games are totally gonna start booming now.
On another note. I just realized that a lot of games’ release dates have changed. Cross Days which was supposed to be released very soon, has now a tentative 2009 release.
You miss my point. My point is that the pressure isn’t coming from the US and EU as a whole, it is mostly the special interests within those entities. (I would say countries, but the EU isn’t a country.) A special interest who is truly devoted to their cause isn’t going to be dissuaded by the fact that the situation in their country isn’t the way they want it to be.
No, but they’re likely to be distracted by trying to tackle the homefront. Especially if the homefront looks like an easier battle. Also, angry special interest groups in other countries have no actual power to change laws in Japan - only the embarassment of the Japanese can do that. And if they don’t see the rest of the world as a whole condemning these things, they would be less embarassed.
The anti-loli forces are a bit more mainstream, though. Especially as the concept of Japan as a place with “all those pervy fetishes and train molesters and schoolgirl fixations” becomes more widespread.
American child rapist is making headlines. He’s almost done serving a 1 year sentence (which is obviously VERY low) for the crime. Causing major upsets, and worth watching because certain interest groups want it to snowball into something bigger (you can hear the two legal experts agree it’s being oversimplified for TV news):
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestof … ntence.cnn
Will it spill into digital rape or fictional lolicon? Probably not… but worth watching in case some “reactionary legislation” is tried for Florida.
1 year in prison? That guy from the lolicon manga case gets 15 years in prison and this guy only gets 1? Good news for actual criminals, bad news for everyone else.
Where’s Kira when you need him?
20, actually.
Yea, its like those drug laws which punish the users more than a murderer.
I can’t get the damn page to load. Anyway…
Why did this make national news again? A rapist got convicted and went to jail for only a short time. So what. Wouldn’t it be more informative to look at a study of rape cases for the year of 2008 and see what the average (or median) sentence was? One case tells you nothing about the general pattern. It’s basically useless for informational purposes.
The Handley case was remarkable because a guy was being prosecuted for something that’s previously been considered “protected speech.” Legal precedents are in the making (or at least the potential for legal precedents being set). That’s interesting. This is not. Rapists are not more or less likely to get lenient sentences because of this case (other than indirectly due to a potential publich backlash because it’s now been publicized :P).
It’s useless fluff like this that made me swear off CNN. Articles on Wired at least tend to be informative and about things that actually matter, even if they’re obscure.
No. The maximum sentence for the loli manga case is 15 years. He almost certainly will get much less.
Likewise, I have no idea what this actual child rapist was charged with, or convicted of, or what kind of deal was involved (having not seen the video since CNN’s video ‘player’ sucks), I doubt very much that 1 year was the maximum sentence for whatever this guy got in trouble for.
Sensationalism. Pure and simple. In this case it’s a media jockey trying to bite some viewership and espouse his personal views of the legal system.
However it’s also a chain. Florida has been having a lot of teachers sexually exploiting students as of late. Florida also has been the center of several Supreme Court rape cases: Florida Star v. B.J.F. and State of Florida v. Globe Communications Corp. most recent (both being cases about how the media exploits them for ratings). If you haven’t been keeping tabs on Florida, there’s a growing movement to update their rape and pedo laws to be more strict across the board. Naturally I’m all for punishing real criminals, but as we all know, interest groups will advocate that “sexual exploitation” seen in games, movies, porn, etc, are a source of these problems. It makes an excellent lightning rod for scapegoating.
More censorship… more strict laws that can also include people who own fictional material… etc, etc, etc. Thus keeping an eye on it is a good thing.
Waste of air time or not - it’s serving it’s purpose for those who want it too.