I’m just gonna leave this here, not that it directly concerns me, nor do I have any real comments on it. I just think its a useful peice of information to those of you that live in the states. These are a pair of articles about people getting arrested in the states for OWNING manga, the state claiming them to be “obscene.”

The person caught risks 20 years in prison, defined in the same category as a rapist or sexual criminal.

Whatever the term is. Now, he didn’t own anything like hentai (anime porn) or anything around those lines. He just owned Loli manga. He just ordered some manga from japan.

Well, I’ll let you read it for yourselves, obviously while I personally am not connected to this. I don’t even live in America so it won’t really affect me, but it still makes me rather aggrivatated that people, to my knowledge can own really weird phornographical movies, and then get arrested for reading Japanese comic books.

It’s like the cops invade your house, and arrest you: not because of the sexually molested children in your basement, but because your “my little ponies” are of a different coloration then they should be.

Welcome to the land of liberty, were you can’t even own a manga anymore:

Articles:

A while back Carl Gustav Horn, manga editor at Dark Horse, contacted us about the ongoing case of Christopher Handley. As you may know, Handley currently faces up to 20 years in prison for the possession of allegedly obscene manga. Carl was concerned about the ramifications of Handley’s case, not just on Handley himself, but on all of us. I think his concern is a very legitimate one, the case against Handley could set a precedent that will affect a lot of collectors and consumers of illustrated and animated material.

After a bit of discussion, Carl was invited to write an editorial on the subject that would be posted on ANN. Shortly thereafter Jason Thompson, author of the Manga: The Complete Guide, expressed his interest in also addressing the subject. I don’t think very many people would disagree when I say that Carl and Jason are two of the most respected individuals in the North American manga industry. If I could choose any two people in the world to write an editorial for Anime News Network on this subject, it would be Carl and Jason.

And that’s just what I present to you today, Carl and Jason’s thoughts on this case, and how you can make a difference.

-Christopher Macdonald

Sources: Article Source Link #1 Article Source Link #2