drewkitty: (Default)
[personal profile] drewkitty
I am watching with some bemusement as Six Apart establishes for itself a highly untenable position in both law and public relations. Ineffective censorship sacrifices important legal protections and carries with it the burden of being effective -- plus angering your so-called community.



The law is clear. If you want to portray someone else's characters in sexual situations, you'd better RUN, not walk, to the legal definitions of "parody" and become very, very familiar with them. So if you want to show Snape and Dumbledore in a threesome with Harry's mother, it's not enough for it to be "HAWT" . . . it needs to do a good job of social commentary on the Harry Potter books. The very lack of sex in the series cries out for parody, in my arrogant opinion. Just do it right.

The law is even more clear on the subject of portrayals of minors engaged in sexual situations. In static text, a 1st Amendment right may or may not exist . . . but in text chat, graphics or video, not only do you NOT have a right to such portrayals, but you risk criminal prosecution under our felony child pornography laws.

Harry Potter is a minor under US law. Never mind that he's been in the kind of close combat that is unusually likely to trigger PTSD and flashbacks. If you write the phrase "Potter's cock cried out for attention" you'd better be talking about a clay-worker's rooster just at dawn.

I remain bemused by the case of the sixteen year old girl who took pictures of herself in bed with her seventeen year old boyfriend . . . and was convicted on child pornography charges. Article | comments on topix.net

I am also concerned about this case, where poses that are shown constantly in such publications as Seventeen and Teen Cosmo are now being criminally prosecuted.

Our Draconian laws have slipped far behind the social reality and far, far behind our technology. I can't speak for everyone else, but I didn't discover that I had genitals on the day I turned eighteen.

I was going to write a dissertation touching on some of these issues, but I was frostily informed that the Internet was not relevant to discussions of social deviance, and that pursuing such research would be a dead end. Now I'm kind of glad I didn't, because writing for academia is a form of intellectual masturbation . . . except that after self-abuse, one has something to show for it.

I'd also like to wave a cheery "hi" to the Six Apart abuse team member / employee who hits this post due to keyword searches. Be aware, your participation in Six Apart censorship puts you at risk of personal liability for being sued. Cheers.

Date: 2007-08-05 06:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kensan-oni.livejournal.com
*headthunk*

... I don't know what is worse... The ruling, or the people commenting who didn't bother reading the article...

One of these days, we are going to get rid of these stupid puritanical values this country has fallen in love with and actually approach sex with maturity instead of insisting everyone is always a ken and barbi doll.

Date: 2007-08-05 07:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cheesybunny.livejournal.com
Actually I think those comments are about a different case, if you click on the link to the story at the top of the comments page you'll see it's something about some teens posting some pictures on myspace.

Date: 2007-08-06 12:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drewkitty.livejournal.com
Several separate cases there. The topix.net refers to two girls who posted pictures of themselves _together_ on myspace . . . the CNet article is about the case in Florida with the 16 and 17 year old. Neither of these cases is the case I actually recall, which involved a teenager posting pictures only of herself, who was brought to trial on child pornography charges and convicted.

Just goes to show what kind of problem we hare having.

Profile

drewkitty: (Default)
drewkitty

November 2025

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16 171819202122
232425 26272829
30      

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 25th, 2026 11:19 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios