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Watch Your Language or Go to Prison for E-Mail Obscenity?

wired.com — Sharing an obscene sexual fantasy over e-mail is a federal crime that enjoys no protection under the First Amendment, a federal appeals court said Monday, in a decision that drew sharp dissent from one judge and potentially set the stage for a Supreme Court appeal.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 18, 2009

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265 Comments

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  • sheeplescareme, on 06/18/2009, -4/+178it's ok - it's to protect the children!
  • ethanator1088, on 06/18/2009, -4/+155This is Nucking Futs.
  • doublefelix, on 06/18/2009, -3/+139What's even more disturbing is that my collection of manga tentacle porn is, apparently, illegal.
  • mikeophile, on 06/18/2009, -2/+129"Dear Penthouse Forum,
    I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be writing here, but this is what happened...
    yadda, yadda, yadda, then me and the ice cream man shot all over her feet. The end."

    *knock knock*

    "You're under arrest. Assume the position. No, not that one you sicko!."
  • Llanowar, on 06/18/2009, -3/+117This is just stupid. We have had the same kinda laws in The Netherlands for some time now. I think we once had a conviction for someone who possessed lolita hentai.

    I really don't get the point of it. Any fantasy, whether it be written, drawn or even computer generated to look perfectly real, is nothing more than that, a fantasy.

    I could care less about how obscene someone's fantasy is, as long as it ain't real there should never be any punishment for it.

    Laws based only on other people's morals wherein there is no hurting of another person should become illegal.
  • chrisduser, on 06/18/2009, -0/+110Why are children reading my obscene emails?
  • KibblesnBitts, on 06/18/2009, -4/+99wow....so prison will now be filled with 4chan /b/tards?
  • mentallyinhell, on 06/18/2009, -3/+91The definition of obscene material will change from one person to the next. Also: ***** a monkey corpse.
  • TheHungerArtist, on 06/18/2009, -0/+85Well you get ***** in prison.
  • sciencelovesyou, on 06/18/2009, -1/+74An Ode to Obscenity Charges. (With the greatest of respects to George Carlin)

    *A-hem*

    *****. Piss, *****, and *****.

    *****

    *****

    ... *****.

    *Curtain*
  • rawnzilla, on 06/18/2009, -2/+74***** this *****.
  • SaladCactusKing, on 06/18/2009, -1/+70And so, a Dubya appointee is the only sane defender of freedom in that courtroom. What a weird world.
  • Akairenn, on 06/18/2009, -1/+66Here come the thought police. Also surprise buttsex.
  • kanojo1969, on 06/18/2009, -0/+49Exactly, how many people in the US have got stuff that falls into this classification? Thousands? And if, in a routine search for some other matter, they find this stuff, you will be prosecuted and may go to jail. Either way, you will be forced to join the registered sex offender thing and announce to all your neighbours that you have a conviction.

    If that's not scaring the ***** out of people, I don't know what will. I'm no manga fan, not in the least, but I do know that liking it doesn't make you a pedophile.

    Hopefully this will keep hitting the courts until it's fixed.
  • nonymous666, on 06/18/2009, -0/+47I don't think he posted the joke to be funny. He was obliquely pointing out that the classic Aristocrats joke would be probably illegal according to the ruling in this case.
  • 3tcp, on 06/18/2009, -1/+47Mom's basement, prison cell, are they really all that different?
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  • TheHungerArtist, on 06/18/2009, -0/+40"God, that was hard to type"

    I know what you mean i hate only having one hand available
  • ZaZ2137, on 06/18/2009, -0/+39Well played sir.
  • D3koy, on 06/18/2009, -0/+39Hah, well I win! My sexual fantasy is getting arrested while describing a fake sexual fantasy! Now, which of you big, muscled FBI agents are gonna lock me up? I've been a bad boy... God, that was hard to type...
  • TheHungerArtist, on 06/18/2009, -3/+42I have the perfect story for this occasion, so this family (mother, father, son, daughter, terrier) walks into a talent agency and the father goes "boy have I got an act for you" The agent replies let's see it then.
    So the father presses play on an old dusty boom box that he's had since his junior year of high school. The benny hill theme begins to play.
    The father rolls up his sleeves as the mother lies on the floor. The father then begins to insert his arm into the mother to the point that his wedding ring must have scratched the other side of her navel. The mother then started joking off the son until he was hard enough to ***** the daughter in the ass. The father seeing this began to ***** the son in the ass, leaving the mother to blow the terrier while the daughter pounded her in the ass with a strap on. The terrier began to bark ferociously due to the oral attention so to quite him the father left the son and began ***** the terrier. Eventually after the terrier had came the father started to spin him like he was facing off against the washington generals. 5 minutes of this continued until they all simultaneously came and shat filling the room with a layer of feces and semen that start to resemble a pack of hostess cupcakes that was crushed and left in the sun. They all started to roll in the excremental pool blowing and pounding each other senseless. After all the family besides the father had passed out due to pain and fumes. The tape stopped and an oppressive silence fell over the room. The agent asked w-w-w-what do you call that act.

    The father replied, "Well my dear friend, it's called The Aristocrats"
  • IllBeBack, on 06/18/2009, -0/+39***** the children!

    Oh, wait...
  • darkened, on 06/18/2009, -0/+39FTA: "Gregory, a President George W. Bush appointee"

    Bush appoints judge that is devotedly pro-free speech = win.
  • lilhelper, on 06/18/2009, -2/+41Wow...this is *****.
  • 3tcp, on 06/18/2009, -0/+34don't forget to hold up a naked stick figure and tell the crowd "she's 8"
  • sciencelovesyou, on 06/18/2009, -0/+32 O
    -|-
    /\

    She's 8.

    (She also has nubs for arms, which are jutting out of her ribs, but that's a whole other problem.)
  • christoast, on 06/18/2009, -1/+27They wont know what anything means, if they do, they don't need protecting from an email...

    Protecting by that method is stupid. If you do that, you'd have to do the same thing to the kid at school who's telling everyone about jerking off.
  • 3tcp, on 06/18/2009, -1/+25"I guess it is debatable whether written fantasy about kiddie sex should be punishable, but it does make this story much less outrageous."

    No it doesn't. We do not punish thoughts in this country, nor do we punish sharing them between consenting adults. We do not punish people for illustrations. There is nothing so obscene that could be thought or drawn that it would be just for the government to punish someone for it. It is not a crime to simply be a wretched person or have deviant sexual fantasies.
  • kanojo1969, on 06/18/2009, -3/+26Yes, it does, you dry-balls *****. And it was a good thing to bring up here, totally in-context.
  • Gareth321, on 06/18/2009, -0/+22More and more things are becoming illegal. How soon before the vaguearities of various "laws" being created ensnare every citizen? Everyone will be too scared to speak out. "First they came for the... " blah blah quote.
  • kingtobo, on 06/18/2009, -0/+20Sorry, that would be illegal.
  • SaladCactusKing, on 06/18/2009, -0/+19I'm Ron Burgundy?
  • inactive, on 06/18/2009, -0/+17So let's clarify this:

    If I take my son to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look a paintings to look at a painting with nude baby angels in the scene that's ok?

    If I take a picture of that same painting and email to my friend or post it on my web page I can now go to prison?

  • joshmoney, on 06/18/2009, -0/+14That's never a question.
  • Myalin, on 06/18/2009, -0/+14Shouldn't matter. Manga are DRAWINGS, fiction. If it's not real, it shouldn't matter! Not only is it a victimless crime, it's a form of thoughtcrime as well. It should be pointed out that oddly enough, Gregory was the only dissenting opinion in the decision.

    I'm pretty sure the Bible has depictions of children and sex. Such laws should make that illegal too, but you'll never see anyone charged with it.
  • 3tcp, on 06/18/2009, -0/+14I could have been underaged therefore that was an obcene suggestion. I have contacted the fbi and you can expect a swat team to bash in every entryway to your place of residence sometime within the next 36 hours.
  • MaximusD, on 06/18/2009, -4/+18Interestingly, denying the Holocaust and Global Warming (Climate Change) are near equally retarded. Love the First Amendment, glad it's legal here, sad that people are dumb.
  • NikoKun, on 06/18/2009, -0/+13Hatred of pedophilia is not a reason to make fiction illegal. -_- THAT is what people are against.
  • chocula78, on 06/18/2009, -0/+13Hell no the cartoons should NOT be illegal. It's understandable how pornographic images of real children are illegal, because the children are being hurt mentally, physically, etc.

    But how do cartoons of children committing pornographic acts hurt anyone? I agree it's ***** sick, but I'd rather Father Mackey gets off to some tentacle hentai porn featuring an 8 year old boy than offering a holy creamsicle to his altar boy.
  • voyetra8, on 06/18/2009, -2/+14KEEP POSTING MAYDAY4AMERICA!

    AS LONG AS YOU ARE POSTING, WE KNOW THE CHEMTRAILS HAVEN'T KILLED YOU, AND YOU ARE STILL SAFE!!!1!

    I'LL MEET YOU IN THE HILLS AT OUR RALLY POINT.

    I HAVE THE MREs AND WATER PURIFIERS. YOU BRING THE WEAPONS.

    OVER. OUT.


  • tj111, on 06/18/2009, -0/+12fap fap fap fap...
  • merreborn, on 06/18/2009, -0/+11No, no... it's not that children might read the emails.

    We have to protect the fictional children IN the emails. Millions of fictional children are abused EVERY DAY! We have to put a stop to this!
  • TimtheTaxMan, on 06/18/2009, -1/+11Four letter words are banned because their use denigrates society and threatens the wholesomeness of children. You will be sent for re-education.

    -The Government
  • kakwakas, on 06/18/2009, -0/+10Venezuela is in Europe now?
  • mrpunman, on 06/18/2009, -3/+12Guten tag!
  • Suzilla, on 06/18/2009, -0/+9I say ... gofer it.
  • memooney, on 06/18/2009, -0/+9I'll be so pissed is Bush ends up the Snape of America...We hated him all through his term, but on his deathbed he actually turns out to have this whole master plan to save us.
  • kanojo1969, on 06/18/2009, -0/+9The fact he had real porn is not relevant, he was already on the hook for that, existing laws were perfectly fine in dealing with the things he possessed and did.

    The issue that was in front of the supreme court was nothing to do with the obviously repulsive material that he possessed. This issue was specifically about sending fictional descriptions of child sex acts over email. The problem isn't this guy, he's obviously scum. But because of this precedent, they can now prosecute people whose *only* crime is sending said fiction over email. That's not right, and in the future it will not surprise me at all if they try and ratchet down the level of obscenity required to cross the line.

    From the prosecutor's point of view this is just establishing a beachhead, from which they can launch future attacks on people's private thoughts and writings. It's *****.
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