Up to 20 years for the possession of manga?

Am I the only one frightened here?

....huh?

What manga?

And why did they concern themselves over a manga in the first place?

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a consultant in his defense. According to their site, Christopher Handley, a 38-year-old manga collector in Iowa, got flagged by the post office when he ordered 7 manga from Japan in May, 2006. The post office, immigration, state CI, and the cops pulled him over, searched his home, and took over 1,200 manga, hundreds of dvds/vhs/lds, and 7 computers. The government is charging him for only a handful of the volumes, which have been identified by some sources as yaoi.

The government claims the manga is obscene. They initially claimed it was child porn, but those charges were dismissed. A jury in Iowa gets to decide if the volumes of manga are obscene as defined in his community- sexually offensive without artistic value. He faces up to 20 years. You got me as to why they're wasting tax dollars going after a manga collector instead of a child molester.

It's scary that this case is happening in the states, even if it's Iowa.

See, that was my thought too, why in hells name are they wasting their time on someone who only has manga.

If he had real CP i could understand why...but the sheer retardation of that baffles me.

There's nothing wrong with what he's doing. If an Artist can draw watever he wants, then why should the collector be arrested?

If Iowa has strict no-porn laws, then he might be in trouble, cause they can deem some of it porn.
... But yet and still, the most he should get a fine

[color=#ff0000]"“That's the difference between me and the rest of the world!
Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!” "[/color]

Wow, that's ridiculous.

Manga is fantasy, and a fantasy is just what it is, ... a fantasy.

source: animenewsnetwork

Join SRoMU Scanlations or visit #SRoMU at IRCHighWay.

Welcome to the middle ages.
All possesors of tomes portraying decadent acts will be trialed and burned at the stake.

And going after manga collectors makes the police seem more capable: "Oh, they caught a perverted member of the society who could rape our children anytime! They've made this town a safer place!" compared to "Oh...they caught another dude that robbed some people nobody cared about anyway."

holy shit... this is scary, so scary. 🤢 poor guy, I am really sorry for him. reading manga, even if it is Yaoi/Shota, is some thing really harmless. stupid cops.. this is worst. :-s

...

My loli!

Well, nah, not really.
I don't read or DL loli or shota
much since they tend to have
characters that are very young.
Too young to arouse me.
I won't go below 15.

People need to stop freaking out in Iowa..it's manga, comics. It's not real. So what's the big deal? Let him go and read his stupid loli, don't see what's so wrong with it, it's not like it's real little kids doing that kind of stuff.

♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ

and here comes the big question

is this a joke?

[img]http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs14/f/2007/026/1/1/Into_Werewolf_by_AbyssWolf.gif[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/Tank_soldier222/Into_Werewolf_RETURNS_by_AbyssWolf.gif[/img]

Ok, clearly everyone here will disagree. This a manga community after all...

I want to hear from the folks who AGREE, and their reasons for it...
Maybe you can help us understand why this guy should get any time at all.

(and I don't want anybody bashing the agreers... [color=FF0000]or you'll give me reason to temp ban you[/color])

[color=#ff0000]"“That's the difference between me and the rest of the world!
Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!” "[/color]

Quote from Caliber

(and I don't want anybody bashing the agreers... [color=FF0000]or you'll give me reason to temp ban you[/color])

And if he doesn't, I will, since i seem to be on a bit more than him.

But i don't think it shall be a problem after two mods giving fair warning.

Quote from Chaoswind

and here comes the big question

is this a joke?

Seems this may be legit. Found this searching google news. Still hoping it's a joke though.

Neil Gaiman On The ‘Obscenity’ Of Manga Collector Christopher Handley’s Trial

Personally, if the guy was having loli-hentai shipped to him, then I wouldn't blame the cops for arresting him. But the guy is being arrested for yaoi so I'm inclined to say this is just silly like everyone else. In any case, I hope he isn't a scanlator. I'd hate to see this become an even bigger witch hunt than it already is.

Well, this is a manga community so not many will agree, but since you are encouraging them to post, some should appear sooner or later, however, before I have an opinion on this matter it would be good to ask some questions

This 38 year old guy was an old sex offender of some kind right? cause to give a person 20 years for having some porn mags in his house (regardless of the content), is beyond extreme, is FOOLISH

They had no right to enter his home to search for those mags without a proper reason, is a complete violation of civil rights and if the guy did nothing wrong he can actually sue the state in a federal court for this

Unless someone says otherwise (that the guy is indeed a pedophile and the mags are just evidence k,l and m) this a complete waste of money and a violation of civil rights

EDIT: So it was for Yaoi!!!!

This is nonsensical crap!!!, so what? they are going to come after me because I own several novels that deal with murder and torture? FUCK THEM

[img]http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs14/f/2007/026/1/1/Into_Werewolf_by_AbyssWolf.gif[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/Tank_soldier222/Into_Werewolf_RETURNS_by_AbyssWolf.gif[/img]