From what I understand the series that got him thrown into jail were Shotacon series, ie. Kiddy porn, which is illegal not only in America, but virtually every contrey in the world.

And yes, that includes drawn pictures too. It was only recently added to Americas laws, and by Bush. But the Amber Alert laws include laws against depictions of Child Pornography. America was actually pretty far behind in the matter, only recently outlawing it, while it's been illegal in other major countries for years.

So It's not just Americans, the rest of the world has to watch out too. Your p0rnz are no longer safe.

This guy who got arrested for ordering manga probably wasn't ordering Naruto or Negima or anything like that. The writer makes it seem like the FBI now has permission to bust into to our homes if we get caught reading Bleach or something. I bet anything this guy ordered some sick stuff with most likely lolis and rape, not just some normal manga. As long as you dont read this junk it should be OK.

Wtf, this is just sick! Since when is manga illegal, shotacon or otherwise?
He's facing charges for obscenity in manga? First of all, have those guys even read manga?
Secondly, am I the only one having watched hollywood movies? There's plenty of obscenity in there. Or does that only apply to manga? Prejudice, fear and disgust about things you're not familiar with. Now where have I heared that before...
My god there is something really wrong about the american legal system, or maybe moral system.

... in preventing ink & paper from being molestated. This law is a retarded one.

Wow what a load of bull.

Maybe tomorrow they'll start banning all bishojo because characters never look like they're 18. I'm Canadian, and I hate America and all the late hypocritical shit they pull. I don't read yaoi or loli, but I STILL think this is a load of shit.

It's really unbelievable how some countries enforce moral codes through severe punishment. I wouldn't want to live in such a country. This would be unthinkable where I live. And trying to change or soften those laws is quite futile since the lawmakers and the majority of the population have a deep rooted way of thinking concerning moral and tradition.

I don't read any of the 'yaoi' or loli stuff but honestly now. There are normal books, like all text BOOKS that are way worse than that stuff...I mean if the guy is actually thinking or acting like he wants to do what was in the book then they have a legitimate reason to arrest him, but come on...

I personally detest shotacon, and yaoi, and various other 'sketchy' manga genres.

However this is rather difficult to take in. Particularly because of how many series actually have one scene (as you noted) of some under-aged girl with her shirt off, in the Japanese fashion of odd humor. Also, manwha like Ubel Blatt would fall under this category.

I have no love for the genres that focus on the illicit material, but the fact is that nearly all manga contains objectionable content in some chapter or another. And this case may simply be a gateway to prosecuting those that do not even hold interest in that 'fetish'.

OMG That SUCKS!! Why is he arrested for BUYING mangas. I feel so bad for the poor guy. If the US doesn't want people buying those types of mangas then they should ban it so EVERYONE knows about it. I'm sure he didn't know it was illegal, otherwise he wouldn't have done it. Sighhh poor guy.

This is wrong, they shouldn't arrest him just for ordering some manga even if the content was questionable. Like someone said, are they gonna arrest people for questionable books and movies next. Am I gonna have to start worrying about arrest because I got a copy of Lolita?

OMG I got to get out of the country!! I was just reading a yaoi Kuroshitsuji DJ... Well, if I wasn't paranoid about having the data on my dead hard drive recovered, I sure as hell am now. I had a yaoi D.Gray-man DJ on the desktop. I'm not a shotacon fan per se, but Mizukami Shin and CJ Michalski really know how to work the genre. The yaoi with preschoolers just isn't something I could read, but high school-age is different (I'm only a few years older than a high schooler anyway).

From what I read in the articles, it's not that he had shotacon, but it's the typical issue non-fans have - they can't tell the age/gender of the characters because they don't know anything about the artwork.

Example: My older brother was drinking from a mug with a Viewfinder character on it for months. The entire time, he thought the character was a long haired girl (so did my mom) and freaked when I told him it was actually a guy in his mid 20s. My parents can't, for the life of them, tell you if a character is a girl or guy, much less guess at an age.

I hope someone explains the age/gender issue to the jury at his trial. Yaoi characters do look young (girls don't want to read about two fat, bald 50ish guys getting hot and heavy), but they tend to be university students, business guys or adults. The only exception that might sink him is the high school yaoi. That and him being a guy reading "gay porn" might not go so good with the jury.

As a yaoi fan, the obscenity charges freak me out. I live in the U.S. (in the south of all places!) so I could be total screwed if "gay cartoon porn" was an arrestable offense. Let's face it, even if yaoi passed the Miller Test in the U.S., that fact that it's gay porn in a homophobic country will automatically get you thrown in jail.

So... technically, if I were to buy a book....let's say Ai Yori Aoshi... the last book....(which I have...) They (FBI and etc) have the right to bust in my room, and just arrest me for reading the book... They may as well going S.W.A.T'ing into Tokyopop building and busting same asses... What exactly is the difference between buying it in Japan from mail, and buying it in a local Barnes and Noble... Back to Ai Yori Aoshi... I PURELY read it for entertainment....no...not that kind of entertainment....more as in something to read, and something to keep me from being bored as hell. For an imaginative person like me, not to be cocky or arrogant, I could easily imagine a scene with my own brain from reading a textbook or novel. SO in the end...they may as well burn all the books in the U.S, I live in the U.S and I feel like almost all of my rights are being stripped away...

I may not make any sense because I'm pretty damn pissed off...

The idiots spending millions doing this meaningless shit are on the same level as the child molesters themselves. I even have some inkling that it's a ploy to detract people away from the real issues. You really think these agencies have unlimited income at their disposal?

For example, let's say you got 7 locked rooms, and you have 3 keys, and in 2 of those rooms is a molester locked in with a small child. One of the locked doors sits Christopher Handley buying his manga and you already know which door it is but instead of using all 3 of your keys to unlock the other doors you instead open Handley's door and hope you're lucky with the other 2 keys you have left.

These guys aren't out to protect children, they're only trying to make a show of trying to, and it is utterly disgusting the amounts of money they waste in the process. Rant off.

I don't really see why the government would try to block drawn kiddy porn. I think completely stopping actual child porn would help many times more. Since the drawn version probably suppresses certain people's urges. I mean if your super into that stuff and you suddenly can't get any relief... Certain people might do something they'd regret later. Let people live in fantasy worlds on their own, just don't let that stuff cross over into real life.

whatever the f*** is this is too much! geez, they're now desperate just like my country. or should I say busybody? i mean, what's the problem w/ just to buy/order manga? unless we did 'that' stuff in real life.

They're going to stop producing porn movies too, right? Don't think so.

Poor guy can't even read in the comfort of his own home, what happened to personal freedom? Why is he the only one arrested? I'm sure there are few hundred (thousands?) more people who probably ordered and bought the same thing. Or was he arrested for being a guy who reads yaoi, but aren't there other guys who read them too.

Guess we should all pack our routers and leave the interweb, who knows what else they might track us down for.

I find it funny that no one has mentioned gravitation seeing as it is a yaoi
its been a while since i've seen the anime and read the manga, but i'm sure that shuichi does NOT look over 18 in gravitation.
and that's distributed legally by tokyopop. imagine the amount of 14 year old high school girls that could get arrested because they own gravitation.

also, i've read all the gravitation megamixes and remixes. i know what is in those. it's not light material


amazing what this country has gone to do to take away our rights

from what i remember about the law, it states that it applies to drawn art if it's indistinguishable from a photograph which we all know would not be the case in 99.99999% of manga. but we can't predict what a jury or judge might think/do. however if they do manage to convict, this case will undoubtedly be appealed to higher courts. and somewhere along the line they will find that his case does not meet the stature and possibly rule the law to be unconstitutional altogether.

I admit I only skimmed the later posts, but I didn't see anyone ask this. Why did the authorities investigate the manga to begin with? Isn't that his private mail? Shouldn't it have been in a non-descript cardboard box for shipping? I want to know what triggered the cops to check the guys mail to begin with. Almost sounds like this "authority" was already targetting the guy before and just used what he could to get him.

This happened back in October and I know it hit the comic industry fast and spread through the ranks and now it's finally reaching the manga level.

This case really pisses me off because it's the neo-cons with their "child porn" yelling that are trying to impose more restrictions on art and what is obscene. This is not the first case of the PROTECT Act, Adam Walsh Act, and Miller Test.

Do any of you recall the HUGE blow up over the Harry Potter fanart that happened on LiveJournal and spread through the ranks of the online world? This is that exact same situation only the Feds got involved because he ordered his stuff from Japan and it went through the mail which is federal territory.

If this was me, I would be suing the state and the Post Office, they invaded his personal property. The Post Office opened up his mail and then called the Feds and the Feds followed him home. They raided his place looking for ACTUAL child porn, because they were told he was actually buying CHILD PORN. They tore through his place, his computer, and confiscated everything and jailed on the charge of Child porn.

When they couldn't FIND ANY child porn they realized they screwed up. And they had to charge him with something so went with the case. The Judge throw out the charge of child porn, because, hey the guy didn't have any child porn.

But because the stuff offended this religious and conservative area... My god the man is reading GAY COMIC PORN!!! They went with obscenity.

If this was a fair trial, the guy would get off and be able to sue them for defamation of his character, illegal search, etc. But it's not, so he needs all the money he can get.

It's art and if he gets convicted he still fight on grounds of appeal.

Because hey, the PROTECT Act, Adam Walsh Act are being tried on ground of unconstitutionality by the Porn Industry on certain parts that effect the perception of obscenity and art.

There is a lot going on and this just goes to show you that you can NEVER let yourself belief that no one is trying to take away your rights, because the Christian Right, is ALWAYS working to get rid of porn because it OFFENDS them. *snorts*

If nothing else, PROP 8's passing just goes to show that they are willing funnel millions into a cause they believe in.

And nothing offends the Christian Right more than GAY PORN!

This to me seems like a typical political pretense where...

...Policy makers try to get reelected by making vague but seemingly morally correct laws, which, in reality, just relocate public funds from current important issues to something with less of a priority.

...Police try to show they are doing something, because they haven't solved the last 50 homicide cases and haven't prosecuted the last hundred sexual offenders.

==== Below is my political view, it has nothing to do with this case, pls don't flame ==========


Below is an article, published by the Law School of Duke University, detailing a US Supreme Court Case on Visual Child Pornography.
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2002dltr00 19.html

I am begging the state officials to spend our tax money more wisely.

this, amazon.co.jp have quietly decided to ban a huge variety of adult products:
WARNING: NSFW link
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2008/12/10/amazon-bans-lolicon-av-eroge-follow/

the world slowly descends back into the dark ages where not only books, but also its author, can be burned for 'violating the laws of god'

somebody must act

This is why I REALLY hate America. I live here and all these guy bashing/hating bastards are really starting to PISS ME THE HELL OFF!!! Obscenity? I'm not a law buff, but I thought, to be charged, it had to have been towards someone or publicly. How could they do this to a poor guy who just wants to read some yaoi? Through me in jail then motherf*ckers!!! I guess I'm a goddamn criminal!!! I guess that rapists, child molesters, drug dealers, murderers and the like are no longer the problem, but a guy into yaoi is!?!?! I hope all the prosecutors die horrible painful deaths!!!! Some one please explain to me exaclty how you can be charged with obscenity because I obviously don't know. F*CKING BULL SH*T!!!!

Really its just a 2d anyway its not real... so what after this the gonna shut arrest people who plays h-game / eroge or shutting down manga shop. Geez...

I just read in one of those links that Gaiman said that he drew fictional minor sex for storytelling so that means that Gantz and stories that have a plotline are safe from the feds...I think

I, for one, am reading yaoi mangas and it just freaks me out to know that a person was actually charged because of mangas, I also own some Junjou Romantica Licensed Copies (Printed in the USA) and just glad that I live in the Philippines because I can't imagine our house being raided due to some printed materials. I definitely have decided to never live in America someday. If any of these laws actually pass and everything gets too overboard, then I'd just love to relocate myself to the home of mangas, Japan, where anime and manga definitely would not be banned, probably ever.

So technically under that act wouldn't at least 90 percent of all porn be deemed "obscene"? I don't understand the charges if they dropped the minor thing.

I'm not even going to dirty any words on this...

Wait.... I haven't actually seen anyone ask where the hell this guy was living. Certain areas in the US have stricter laws concerning porn in general than other ones. And in small town, extremely conservative areas things like this may be possible. But if you're living in a larger area (and by larger I mean like greater than 10,000) generally moderate area, I doubt they'll come banging on your door about reading yaoi, hentai, or porn in general. [Shota and lolicon are another matter entirely]

Its just a matter of knowing the laws in your area and its views

That's sad. Why would It matter what we read anyways? There is so much worse porn everywhere on the internet. Heck even youtube could get more explicit easily. Chirs Handley should be FREED >

That's ridicules... How can there be absurd laws like this?
People can buy all kinds of porn, but not manga?...
I don't live in the US, my country is probably too lazy to bother, and it's a good thing. Who cares what people read behind closed doors...
Fine, protect the children from things they see everywhere by not letting them read manga. Are they trying to do their parents' job?
And besides, since when can people start restricting what others read?
And I'm not talking abut little kids.
This whole thing is absurd...

I agree. How long is it before even the more innocent reading material will be checked, and our privacy will be broken into....

This is absurd. What about the package made the Postal Inspector suspicious enough to open and riffle through the contents? I'd sure as hell like to know because I'm expecting a shipment Dr. Ten and Hoshino Lily manga to be dropped off at my doorstep next Friday, and it would be nice if the police didn't come with it.

I would really like to know just what titles they are referring to in this case.

You guys are making a mountain out of a molehill. There's no way this guy is going to get 20 years for buying manga, geez.

And if he did, so what? If that's the law, that's the law. If your state law says depictions of sex are obscene, that's what your law says. Rage against it, fine. Try to get it changed, fine. But if you don't want trouble, don't break it.

Silly Americans and their lack of personal responsibility.

I find this quite an interesting response from the country of first person shooters e.g. Grand Theft Auto which certainly features a lot of obscene and vulgar material.

Also if they are doing such censorship it will have to be applied to all art forms including written works, which can feature some pretty hard stuff.
Personal opinion of course.

O.k. I read Yaoi, Shounen ai and very, very rarely shota (4 to date), and I read 2 of the shota because I really like Haruka Minami and C.J. Michalski and wanted to see what they did with the genre and the other 2 I didn't even realise were shota until I saw the MU classification and went back to check the school uniforms.

Now I respect that many people don't like this.

I don't like Loli or Horror or Hentai, etc.

However, just because I like homosexual manga doesn't mean I condone child abuse or rape.

I certainly would never look at real pornography featuring children.

The mere idea of sexually abusing any one, let alone a child, makes me feel physically ill and emotionally repulsed by the person carrying out such behaviour.

Manga is an art form used to explore all possible representations of a reality.
This is why there are so many genera, each with their own following.

I do think this charge is ridiculous and think that the americans should spend their time and money combating the child trafficing which occurs within their own country.

And if we're really worried about abuse in manga let's start with the ones depicting hard core rape, regardless of gender or age, without any negative consequences, and at least include a page about the real effects of rape in each book.
Furthermore I find that the shota I've encountered mainly features children happily choosing to have sex with each other, not older men preying on children, and the only manga with such a plot point shows it as extremely emotionally damaging for the boy.

My apologies if this was rambling and makes no sense. I'm glad that at least some people are helping him, and glad that I will never live in the US.

Ronnie.

If you guys get a chance, read Neil Gaiman's "Why Defend Freedom of Icky Speech?" here:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/why-defend-freedo m-of-icky-speech.html

...especially if you're on the fence about whether or not to take up arms for something you really aren't into. Like lolican or yaoi.

Spread the word and donate to the CBLDF if you can!

Hahaha im so glad im not from a free contry like Americe where you can do what you like...or not
My country realy has no problem with what people read so informations like this one can only show me where i dont want to go ever!

This is pretty sick. Just before I get started I want to point out that this post is in no way meant to insult or offend any person in particular, I've got some friends in the US. This post is directed at the politics of the US. My views on the US and the hypocritical politics it drives isn't that high to begin with but it feels they just hit a new all-time low.

What's with the slogan " The land of the free"? If people have to be afraid of ordering manga (stories made by pictures and such which a slight resemblance to regular comics) just because they might face a trial and prosecution that slogan is the height of hypocrisy.

In that case, do they also prosecute people who read romance novels (where the contents can be quite graphic if I remember correctly) or for that matter Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler (or whatever they're called)? If that's so I'm sure quite a large number of US citizens (teenage boys for example) would probably be standing accused right about now.

It's just sad to see, considering for example that the politics of US (as well as quite a bit of their lifestyle) affects the rest of the world to such a degree.

This is just STUPID.
This is why I'm scared to buy manga. I live in a pretty liberal state but a somewhat smaller town, so to get manga I'd have to go to the city or get it through mail. I can't trust that my privacy will be protected so I do neither.
Shouldn't they be spending their time on actual child predators, or stopping people from being forcefully whored for money. There are women, children and men being enslaved in this country and the government is focusing on manga. Do they not have more important issues to take care of.

*donated to the cause*

Of all the things that people are concerned about. This is the stupidest. Good money wasted on something so trival. I really hope that that guy gets off. I feel that people should buy and read what they want to read, granted, some genres like yaoi, shota/loli, hentai, horror, etc aren't my thing. But the important thing to remember is that manga is NOT REAL! If they want to charge "obscene" and "objectionable," go charge those buying/downloding real porn.

Not that I am a flag-waving nationalist in the slightest, but there are all these posts talking about how "awful" it is in the United States so I thought I should say a little something in defense of my tuft of dirt on this planet. Or at least, something that puts this situation into perspective for people that aren't from the US. Listen up.

The prominence of certain social values in public in the US, be they conservative or liberal, life depends a large part in what state you're from; they are not the same in every part of the US. One of the reasons that this happened to this poor guy is that he is from Iowa. Now, Iowa is a very, very, very socially conservative state. A lot of people with openly fundamentalist, evangelical Christian views call Iowa their home. If Christopher Handley was from California, New York, Oregon, Massachusetts or any other socially liberal (usually coastal) state the chances of this happening to him would have been lower to none. Even if he was from a state where politically people are conservative yet generally believe that the best government is little government - New Mexico or Montana, for instance - he probably would be fine. The fact of the matter is that Handley is living in the wrong place at the wrong time. The current presidential administration in this country was in large part built by the Christian Right, and with Bush as president they attained a lot of power in public life (this happened before, too, during the Reagan administration). And they are especially pro-active in places where are lots of people who share their views. Like Iowa (and most of middle, farm-country America). And even if the people who went through Handley's mail aren't religious conservatives, Iowa is still not a place liberal or progressive views about anything from right-to-privacy to same-sex marriage are held by the majority. They will go through your stuff if they think that it is for the better of the "community" (that is, people who think like them).

So that's a large part of how I think this happened at all. And it also one of the main reasons that I think he will be okay in the end. Freedom of Speech is so hotly contested, debated, and defended in this country all the time that in way you could say that this trial is nothing special. It is *very* important for manga and comic readers because is the first that anyone will be prosecuted for actually *owning* obscene material. But not everyone who is going to be helping this dude out are social conservatives from the Mid-west. He's going to have supporters from all over the place with much more progressive views - or should I say, *mainstream views*? Because even if most people do not agree with what someone is saying or enjoying the general attitude most Americans have towards free speech is that it is necessary and fundamental to society and should be preserved at all costs. This is the reason that the Klu Klux Klan is allowed to erect crosses in Fountain Square in my hometown of Cincinnati. Trust me, we *hate* it, hate with a passion. But we know that if we put up a law preventing the Klan from "expressing" themselves (bleh), then that same law could be used to prevent *us* from expressing ourselves in the future. Many people in the US understand that the law does not make neat distinctions, so I think Handley will be cool in the end.

If manga and comic fans in the US get the word out we can drum up a lot of support for this guy. And when Bush leaves office, I know things will change. I don't think that the Christian right is going to be so bold and cocky once their open supporter in the White House leaves ('cause President-Elect Obama sure as hell isn't their friend). But why wait? We should do what we can now! And I would suggest to Mr. Handley, after all of this is done, that he consider moving somewhere else.

I donated too. Since I am a reader of yaoi manga and have read some shotacon, I am hoping this guy won't go to jail and his case ends up being thrown out. It's not just this Handley guy's rights that have been abused but the rights of every person that loves to read or enjoys looking at art in the privacy of their own homes. It can even affect fans of anime, also.

This guy was not hurting anyone and it's wrong to say that what someone does in private, that doesn't affect/harm other people, is something that the government should be allowed to attack. The one being harmed with the government's case is Handley and the government is not in any way doing this for the protection of anyone. I believe though, that this guy will get off because this case is unconstitutional.

Ridiculous. Simply, and utterly ridiculous.

Thats kinda weird cause i could swear that there was a case saying that drawn graphic images are not the same as real images, i.e. hentai is not porn, and that they cannot be tried or even considered the same thing. But what ever if they would dare to do that to me, I'd just take a magnet to my HD lol.

So, even though this has been beaten to death with a very big stick, it has gotten me thinking.

The continual tug-of-war between Public and Private, how to protect kids, how to protect people's views, the average person.

America is a great place, and I mean that very seriously, we have the freedom to challenge the government, we have the freedom to disagree. Yes, we have our limits, and yes, we all disagree with the limits occasionally. When is the government allowed to invade our private lives? When are they allowed to control our public?

Comics aren't necessarily new, in fact, they could be eons old if you're counting the drawings on cave walls, eon perhaps being an over exaggeration in this case. But when Motion Pictures were new, they were denied free speech, subject to a censor board and everything (this was in 1915), because they might be used for evil. Now, to give some credit to the folks of that time, motion pictures have made us generally apathetic toward all of the violence and sex that we see in movies, but that means that our Community Standards have changed as a whole. That court case was a few years ago now, and it's almost the year 2009, so is it right that comics, which as fans of anime and manga, we consider a form of art, a statement, our speech, should they be censored?

Now yaoi isn't allowed? I have only read a few series, the first of which is Loveprize in Viewfinder. Which is sold in the USA, and can be bought at Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobles, and I know cause I've seen it being sold there online. So that's illegal? While its still being sold? Cause I think we all agree that the first chapter in Viewfinder is pretty dang graphic. Well, I just wanted to point this out. I could on this topic for a while....

i read a LOT of the opinions here, and its not that they should be dismissed; but the dude obviously didn't have the regular ecchi manga or something that could be taken as a joke if they choose to arrest him for it. sorry but i'm going to go ahead and take sides with the law on this one, IF the guy indeed had some heavy shota/loli or some crazy rape manga than in all due respect he should go to jail for a bit, NOT 20 years though lmao; thats a little excessive, maybe a month and simply have him burn the stuff

This is completely retarded. Whatever happened to the Bill of Rights? People should have the choice to read whatever the hell they want. Whatever we want to read we should have the right to do it. I have no words to describe the stupidity of being arrested for reading porn. What he wants to read for his personal entertainment is no ones business but his. Individual rights seem to be dwindling by the second.

Now this seems like scare tactics for the CBLDF. This is a real case and I take this seriously but the point your trying to make is being detracted from buy the blatant pug for a hand out.

i believe you all have known that U.S. is a god damned nation devoted to FREEDOM - that means the freedom to take away your freedom...

it is meaningless to argue anymore, it is just how the nation are...

if it wasn't, how would there be all those banned books?...

now now, to those who live in U.S. or love U.S. or think its awesome or etc... LONG LIVE FREEDOM!!!!!

Omfg ffs wtf?! This is ridiculous... Regardless of what he's reading, 20 yrs in prison for reading MANGA?! We're talking about made up stories, black and white, on paper, non moving, NOT REAL, DRAWINGS and letters... F*CKING INK AND PAPER! 20 f*cking years ppl, think about it. People get less for killing someone or rape in REAL LIFE. Bureaucracy has gone MAD and is in a SAD state. Obscenity my ass. It's entirely subjective. This is laughable. Before you know it, another war is going to start between two countries, i think you can guess which two... The cause? F*cking manga... Shit, what has the world come to these days... What are they going to do next? Launch an international investigation to hunt down mangaka and chuck em in Guantanamo or something?! This is ludicrous...

When is this trial? We should get people to protest. Someone tell Anonymous.