Here’s some interesting links from this week.  I have some stuff to say about the manga/porn case (in sum: a fair chunk of manga is porn, and that’s completely OK), but that will have to wait until I’ve got some more time.

From Boing boing:

Apple gets into the book banning business

Apple’s refused to allow an application called “Comic Reader” in the iTunes Store because they don’t like the comic book it ships with — effectively, they’ve gotten into the business of banning or approving literature.

From Jeff Davis:

Brit Internet Service Providers censor Wikipedia over ‘child porn’ album cover

Six British ISPs are filtering access to Wikipedia after the site was added to an Internet Watch Foundation child-pornography blacklist, according to Wikipedia administrators.

As of Sunday morning UK time, certain British web surfers were unable to view at least one Wikipedia article tagged with ostensible child porn. And, in a roundabout way, the filtering has resulted in Wikipedia admins banning large swaths of the United Kingdom from editing the “free encyclopedia anyone can edit”.

From Martha Gonzales:

Manga=Porn?

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has signed on as a special consultant to the defense of Chistopher Handley, an Iowa collector who faces up to 20 years in prison for possession of manga…The government alleges that the material includes drawings that they claim appear to be depictions of minors engaging in sexual conduct.  No photographic content is at issue in Handley’s case.

Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you’re going to have to stand up for stuff you don’t believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don’t, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person’s obscenity is another person’s art.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund will defend your First Amendment right as an adult to make lines on paper, to draw, to write, to sell, to publish, and now, to own comics. And that’s what makes the kind of work you don’t like, or don’t read, or work that you do not feel has artistic worth or redeeming features worth defending. It’s because the same laws cover the stuff you like and the stuff you find icky, wherever your icky line happens to be: the law is a big blunt instrument that makes no fine distinctions, and because you only realise how wonderful absolute freedom of speech is the day you lose it.

On Halloween, The Canadian Boarder Services Agency published their quarterly list (19 page PDF) of seized items.  You’ll likely see stuff that offends you because you think it is racist, pornographic, or just plain wrong (and possibly a combination of more than one of these).  I encourage you, even if you do have delicate sensibilities, to take a look anyway to get an idea of what types of materials are not allowed in Canada, according to sections 58, 59 and 60 of the Customs Act.

I’m puzzled by the varying quality of description of these items.  Some are almost detailed enough to be in a library catalogue, for example “Ghita Of Alizarr, Second Edition (Part 1), By Frank Thorne, Published By Catalan Communications, Copyright 1990, ISBN: 0-87416-095-2″ (on page 9, under Comic Books), which was admissable.  Others are extremely vague, for example “Best of 2000″ (also on page 9, under Compact Discs), which was prohibited.  How am I supposed to know what Best of 2000 is about?

This list is not published on the CBSA website, nor are previous lists available on their site. If you would like to receive these updates by email, contact the CBSA  at piu-uip@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca and request to be added.

Previous posts on The Quarterly Lists:

• April to June 2008
• January to March 2008
• October to December 2007
• July to September 2007