Canadian Charges Against US Manga Reader Dropped 298
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Defense Fund and the Canada-based Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund have announced that the Canadian government has withdrawn all criminal charges in R. v. Matheson, a case which involved a U.S. citizen who was arrested and faced criminal charges in Canada relating to manga found on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."
"Anime and manga" (Score:5, Informative)
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."
shitty summary strikes again! (Score:5, Informative)
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."
More importantly... (Score:5, Informative)
Microfinancing (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Justice for those who can afford it. (Score:5, Informative)
The actual cost of his defense was $75K. The other $30K was paid by the two legal defense funds.
The defendant's personal statement about the case is worth reading: rather chilling: http://cbldf.org/homepage/ryan-mathesons-personal-statement/ [cbldf.org]
Re:Drawings != child porn (Score:5, Informative)
As I understand it, the images he was arrested and charge over were not even of children. They were adolescent/young-adult characters who might have been of legal age or maybe not. This ambiguity is not uncommon in the work of Japanese artists, especially in light of the cultural taboo (I'm not sure if it's still illegal in Japan) against drawing pubic hair. The initial judgment that the drawings were "child pornography" was made by a supervisor who had not even seen them, let alone someone qualified to somehow make that judgment.
Re:Justice for those who can afford it. (Score:5, Informative)
>I read Ultra64's post as sarcasm
Yeah, I thought it was incredibly obvious I was being sarcastic.
Re:Be falsely accused, become poor (Score:5, Informative)
In most places in the US, if you have assets of any kind (car, etc.) or even just have a job, you're likely to be denied a court-appointed attorney.
Re:shitty summary strikes again! (Score:5, Informative)
What's incredibly scary for me is that it is easier than people might think to get caught by this. I live in Japan and my friend's daughter (who lives in Canada) asked if I could mail her a manga so that she could practice reading Japanese. Her favorite anime at the time was Inu Yasha.
No problem! I bought the manga, was all ready to mail it off when I thought, "Hey, I haven't read this for a while, maybe I'll just give it a read". Half way through the book, there's a picture of the main character (a 14 years old girl) taking a bath in the lake. Not an erotic scene IMHO, but I guarantee it meets the definition of child porn in Canada.
That's just what I need; to have a record for importing child porn to Canada.
Re:Be falsely accused, become poor (Score:2, Informative)
1.You get much better service at a free clinic than from the public defender.
2. If you work full-time and make $8 per hour you are too rich to qualify for the public defender.
(In the state of Minnesota at least.)
Re:Has anyone looked at the image in question? (Score:4, Informative)
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 [photobucket.com]
Enjoy the horrible child rape porn... (fucking sad)
Re:Border crossing (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:Justice for those who can afford it. (Score:4, Informative)
The real deal-breaker here is that he made a plea bargain.
This is Canada (not USA). I know you US-ians do that sort of stuff regularly, but that's (from what I'm used to) not done here, that I know of.
I still don't understand what to or why he pled the charges; still researching. I'm beginning to feel like a stranger in a strange land, and I live here. This guy shouldn't have needed to plead to anything! WTF is a "non-criminal regulatory offense"? I've never heard of it. Bringing too many cigs across the border?
As part of the deal, the prosecutor withdrew all criminal charges against me. I knew my defense was extremely strong, but I also knew all trials are inherently risky. If I had gone to full trial, the original criminal charges against me posed the risk of a minimum mandatory sentence of one year plus having to register on a sex offender registry in Canada and potentially even in the United States.
Ho. Ly. !@#$.
Lend me a gun somebody?
This case was important to me. Japanese animation and manga are something I hold precious. I first got into anime when I was about eight years old by watching Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z that aired on TV at the time.
Sailor Moon. Dragon Ball Z. So, what innocuous hobbies are going to trigger attack dogs on me? ReBoot? Guilty as charged. Take me away!
Ryan, I apologize for my country's actions.