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Defense Fund and the Canada-based Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund have announced that the Canadian government has withdrawn all criminal charges in R. v. Matheson, a case which involved a U.S. citizen who was arrested and faced criminal charges in Canada relating to manga found on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."
Re:Drop charges == pay? (Score:5, Interesting)
How about if you drop charges you pay for the defense to date (and a reasonable compensation for any jail time or lost opportunities) but if you prosecute and fail you pay triple. Just to make sure there's no dirty dealing, if you manage through misconduct to get a conviction you shouldn't have, you get to do the time yourself.
Re:Bad logic (Score:4, Interesting)
While I strongly disagree with making it criminal, the most common logic I've heard is it will incite pedophiles to an action they wouldn't otherwise have taken.
Just like porn makes you go rape white women.
Re:"Anime and manga" (Score:5, Interesting)
The hell? Makes it sound like all anime and manga have naked children in them.
There's the mistake that everyone makes. The child pornography laws came about as a way to protect children from being exploited, i.e. abused, in the creation of said pornography. How this ever turned into "mind crime" is crazy. Now people accept that the possession of any representation, i.e. drawing, of an child, i.e. under the age of 18, in a sexual fashion is criminal. How did we ever get from one to the other?
Re:"Anime and manga" (Score:4, Interesting)
Or, in this case, think of the imaginary children!
Re:Justice for those who can afford it. (Score:5, Interesting)
The real deal-breaker here is that he made a plea bargain. Unfortunately, this is how he lost. I know first-hand how this can go. By making a plea, you are granting the prosecution a free pass on any treatment or unfairness you may experience in the process.
But I feel for the guy. He's young and likely scared. And after almost two years of this crap hanging over his head, misery, depression and paranoia are among the giant mess of emotions he was probably feeling.
Still, it's a lot of money and I would consult with an attorney about the wrongful arrest and try to get some backing by one or more professionals in the field of psychological medicine to support a case based on his pain and suffering he was subjected to over a very long period. And believe me, being charged with something false and having such things hanging over your head and over your future horizons is no small matter.
He should definitely sue. He will probably lose because a judge would not want to cripple his criminal justice system with a precedential ruling in favor of the former defendant, but there's a good chance they might settle with him to keep the profile on the issue down.
Re:Drawings != child porn (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Canada is extremely strict in their customs (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Ten years ago (Score:5, Interesting)
What I don't understand is how they are even catching people with stuff on their computers in the first place. The comments on Slashdot (in various stories, not just this one) make it sound like laptops are routinely searched at the border (both in the US, and Canada).
But I've entered both those countries 20, 30 times (I'm Australian). Not once has my laptop been searched; nor have I seen officers request to search anyone else's. They don't seem to pay any attention to electronic devices at all (not surprising, basically everyone travels with a laptop/tablet these days).
So my question is: when and where are these searches occurring? Am I just lucky, or are these searches very rare to begin with (and probably only done if someone is stopped at the border for some other reason first?)
Re:Drawings != child porn (Score:4, Interesting)
The swedish minister of law (it's funny because she dropped out of law school)
Actually, "Tant Gredelin" (AKA Beatrice Ask) never even attended law school, she briefly studied economics...