Utah’s law sought to regulate all Internet speech that some might consider “harmful to minors,” including works of visual art, photography, graphic novels, and information about sexual health and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.

The official press release from the Media Coalition discusses the importance of the victory:

SALT LAKE CITY May 18, 2012 — People cannot be prosecuted for posting content constitutionally protected for adults on generally-accessible websites, and are not required by law to label such content that they do post, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson held yesterday.  Judge Benson’s order was issued in a lawsuit challenging a Utah law that threatened the free speech rights of online content providers and Internet users.  Plaintiffs included a Utah artist; trade associations representing booksellers, publishers, graphic and comic books, and librarians; and the ACLU of Utah.

In 2005, the Utah legislature extended to electronic communications its existing law regulating the distribution of “harmful to minors” content—that is, speech that adults have a First Amendment right to receive but that minors do not.  Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit that year, arguing that the broadly worded Utah law violates the First Amendment by prohibiting lawful adult-to-adult communications on the Internet simply because a webpage or blog may be seen by a minor, while also compelling online speakers to label or rate such content. Similar overbroad statutes in other states have been held unconstitutional, or have been limited by the courts in a manner similar to the judgment entered in this case.

Plaintiffs’ counsel worked out an agreement with Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff on how the law would be implemented.  Yesterday’s order makes clear that the only people who can be prosecuted under the statute for electronic communications are those who intentionally send “harmful to minors” materials to a specific individual known or believed to be a minor, or who send such material to a minor having negligently failed to determine the age of the recipient.  The order also narrowed the mandatory labeling provision in light of advances in Internet filtering software since the statute was enacted in 2005.  The Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff acknowledged that the requirement of labeling has been rendered unnecessary by more advanced software.

“This is a critical victory for free speech,” said David Horowitz, Executive Director of Media Coalition, an organization that represents the trade associations of booksellers; publishers; graphic and comic books; and librarians.  “This declaratory judgment makes clear that adult-to-adult communications on the Internet, and through other electronic means, cannot be restricted simply because minors also access the Internet and other electronic communications.”

“Judge Benson’s order removes the cloud cast over internet speech that Utah’s broadly worded statute had created,” said John Mejia, Legal Director of the ACLU of Utah.  “With this declaration, the ACLU of Utah can continue to make information such as out ‘Know Your Rights’ materials for students and LGBT youth available online without fear of possible prosecution for doing so.”

“This judgment brings the Utah law into line with 15 years of legal precedent protecting the constitutional rights of adults to access lawful content online,” said Emma Llansó, Policy Counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology.  “It also underscores that the best approaches to protecting children online rely on user empowerment tools.”

“We are grateful to Attorney General Shurtleff for recognizing that this narrow construction of the statute fully serves Utah’s interest in protecting minors, while also protecting our First Amendment rights,” said Michael Bamberger, of SNR Denton US LLP, lead counsel for plaintiffs. “The resolution by agreement of the parties would not have been possible without the assistance of Judge Benson.”

Plaintiffs included Nathan Florence, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; Association of American Publishers; Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; Freedom to Read Foundation; and the ACLU of Utah.  They were represented by Michael Bamberger and Richard Zuckerman of SNR Denton US LLP, which is general counsel to Media Coalition and by the ACLU of Utah and the Center for Democracy & Technology.

More information is available at http://www.mediacoalition.org/

You can read a detailed history of the case here.

Please help support CBLDF’s work to strike down unconstitutional censorship laws such as this by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!

UPDATE: You’ll find CBLDF at booth #603 throughout the show!

With Executive Director Charles Brownstein in Japan for a symposium on manga and censorship; Deputy Director Alex Cox in Portland, Maine, for the Maine Comics Arts Festival; and a charity auction and a booth headed up by volunteer Diana Green at St. Paul, Minnesota’s SpringCon, CBLDF is all over the world this weekend. Lest the West Coast feel left out, I’ll be on hand at the Big Wow! ComicFest in San Jose, California!

Big Wow takes place May 19 – 20 in downtown San Jose at the San Jose Convention Center, Hall 2. You’ll find CBLDF at booth #110 #603, and we’ll will join throngs of fans for two days of comics creators, media guests, and exciting programming. We’ll be on hand with an exclusive assortment of signed premiums, including what may well be the last of our hugely popular CBLDF Grab Bags.

This show is sure to slake the thirst of any Bay Area fanboy or fangirl who didn’t get their WonderCon fix this year. I know I’m excited about the extensive guest list, which includes the likes of Jim Lee, Tim Sale, Bernie Wrightson, Kevin Nowlan, and Juanjo Guarnido — and that’s just the beginning! Come hang out with me and show your support for Free Speech and the CBLDF at Big Wow this weekend!

Betsy Gomez is the Web Editor for CBLDF.

I will be at the Maine Comics Arts Festival in Portland, Maine, all weekend. On Saturday, May 19,  I will be presenting the CBLDF’s “History of Censorship in Comics” — a slideshow walk through oppression and small-mindedness from the 1930s to today! The presentation happens at the Portland Public Library Main Branch in the Rines Auditorium (5 Monument Square).

On Sunday, May 20, from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., you’ll find me at the Ocean Gateway with a booth full of info about the Fund and awesome donation premiums like our hugely popular I READ BANNED COMICS tees and the (now-defunct) COMICS CODE AUTHORITY stamp tee-shirt!

The Maine Comics Arts Festival is a much-loved regional show and very much a community event. Created and sponsored by Casablanca Comics, this year’s show features a great guest list, including Kate Beaton, Rick Parker, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, and Kazu Kibuishi. Admission is only $5, and everyone in New England should be there!

Alex Cox is the Deputy Director of CBLDF.

“Year after year, Nick Postiglione with Source Comics and Games and the MCBA are some of the most generous contributors to the CBLDF,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “They’re a terrific organization that is a model of local effort to support creativity and fandom in the immediate community.  Likewise, their support of CBLDF makes an important difference on our work. This year’s support will help us contribute to the legal bills of their Minneapolis-St. Paul resident Ryan Matheson, who courageously fought Canada Customs when they wrongly accused him of criminal behavior for the comics he carried.  We’re grateful to the terrific community in the Twin Cities and to the MCBA for their continued support of our important work.”

The MCBA website has all the details on the auction:

One of the premiere events at SpringCon! Our 24th annual charity auction takes place on Sunday May 20 at 2:30PM in the Guest Creator Panel Room! This is a live auction that is basically fun, extremely exciting and easy to participate in! 100% of all proceeds will be split between the Minnesota Lupus Foundation – www.lupusmn.org and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund – www.cbldf.org – Special items this year include a huge selection of original art, sketches, original posters and a wide variety of other unusual & esoteric comic book & related collectible & items. This event is FREE and everyone is welcome to participate! On behalf of the charities we accept cash, checks and all credit cards! Don’t miss this one!

If you’re in the area, be sure to check out SpringCon and the MCBA Charity Art & Collectibles Auction, this weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota! Please support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work by bidding generously!

In February, Belgian courts ruled that Tintin in the Congo should not be removed from bookstore shelves over charges that it violated Belgian laws regarding racism and inciting racial hatred. The court ruled that the book, which was serialized from 1930 to 1931 and collected in 1946 with significant revisions, was a product of its time and did not intend to incite racial hatred. This week, The Guardian reposted an analysis that Jogchum Vrielink wrote about the case and its impact on the sale of the book.

Vrielink’s analysis summarizes the details of the case:

Bienvenu Mbuto Mondondo, a Congolese national studying in Brussels, filed suit to obtain an injunction against the continued publication, distribution and sale of Hergé’s comic book Tintin in the Congo (Tintin au Congo), as well as seeking to have the book withdrawn from bookshops and libraries in Belgium. Mondondo did so on the basis of alleged violations of the Belgian anti-racism legislation. In subsidiary order he demanded that a disclaimer be printed on the comic’s cover, warning of its offensive nature, along with the inclusion of an introduction of a similar nature. Mondondo was supported in his claims by the minority organization Conseil représentatif des associations noires (Cran).

On 10 February 2012, the Brussels Court of First Instance rejected all the applicants’ claims. The Court also rejected the counterclaims by Casterman, the series’ publisher, and Moulinsart, the company which was set up to protect and promote the work of Hergé. Both had asked for 15,000 euros as compensation for ‘vexatious proceedings’.

This latest suit isn’t the first time the book has been challenged. The book has been subject to controversy throughout its history, as outlined by Vrielink:

The album has regularly been a cause for debate, particularly in the Anglophone world. Due to ongoing controversies it was not published in English until 1991. The colour edition did not even appear until 2005. When finally it was published (by Egmont Publishing), it included a cautionary wrapper indicating that it contained “bourgeois, paternalistic stereotypes of the period” that may be offensive to contemporary readers. The edition also encompassed an introduction providing additional historical contextualisation. Nevertheless, in 2007 the (former) Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) asked the bookstores Borders and Waterstones to stop selling the book, in response to a complaint it had received.

According to Vrielink, the bookstores didn’t remove the book as requested, but they did move it from the children’s section to the adult section. Several English retailers also sell the book with a label that describes the book as unsuitable for readers under the age of 16. In the United States, plans to publish the book were dropped entirely, so an American edition has never seen print. The Brooklyn Public Library keeps a copy, but it is not part of the open collection and available only by request.

Vrielink addresses the decision made by the Belgian court:

Judged by contemporary standards, Tintin in the Congo is blatantly colonial, highly paternalistic, and offensively stereotypical, to say the least. The question, however, that the Brussels Court had to answer was whether its present-day publication and distribution could be legally prohibited under the anti-racism legislation. The Court rightly rejects this possibility.

Vrielink further explains that court’s decision is based in part on the definition of harassment and what legally constitutes harassment. The court found that Mondondo and the claimants had a overly broad interpretation of harassment, which is legally defined as “unwanted conduct connected to a person’s race or ethnic origin with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.” In regard to the idea that the book incites racial hatred, the court ruled against the claimants in part because there was no evidence of actual hateful acts incited by the book.

Vrielink discussed the implications of the case, both for Mondondo and the book. Mondondo claims that his lawsuits have started a critical public discourse about the content of the book, but Vrilink points out that Mondondo is likely mistaken in this view point:

Mondondo’s view however ignores the counterproductive effects that the legal approach has for his cause. Admittedly, the complaint as well as the ruling have received significant media attention. However, the content of the coverage was predominantly of a negative, or even mocking, character. Precisely because Mondondo and the Cran opted for a legal solution, the applicants were routinely portrayed as overly sensitive, ‘politically correct’, and bent on censorship. Even the Centre for Equal Opportunities – the Belgian agency responsible for enforcing the federal discrimination legislation – warned against “over-reaction and hyper political correctness”. In other words, the legal approach has not given rise to the desired critical discussion about the comic itself.

In fact, quite the opposite is the case. Firstly, there have been unintended commercial effects, to say the least. Sales of the album rocketed, following the British discussion about a ban, by as much as 3,800 per cent (See B. Malkin, “Race row Tintin is best-seller“, Daily Telegraph, 14 July 2007). The comic temporarily even jumped to 5th place in the Amazon bestseller list. The lawsuit(s) in Belgium had similar effects, causing the French version of the album to temporarily go out of stock in September 2007. Secondly, and more fundamentally, the lawsuits shut down discussion rather than promoting it, by the aura of legitimacy that the inevitable rejection of the claims and the equally inevitable future acquittal yield. These outcomes wrongly suggest, to the general public, that there is nothing wrong with the ideas on which the work is based, while in fact these do require critical debate and analysis. However, instrumentalising the law and the court system for the purposes of this debate seems both misdirected and counterproductive.

You can read the entirety of Vrielink’s analysis here. CBLDF coverage of the case can be found here.

Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work and reporting on issues such as this by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!

This weekend sees CBLDF events around the country and around the world: CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein is headed to Japan to talk about the challenges creative expression faces in Japan and abroad.

Japanese manga and anime have strong appeal worldwide, and as their popularity has increased, they have faced challenges in Japan and overseas, including in the United States. Japanese censors have actively called for and passed laws that regulate the sale of manga and the depiction of sexuality in manga. In the United States, a Korean manwha — the equivalent of manga — is near the top of the list of the most-challenged books in 2011, and the ownership of manga led to the prosecution of Christopher Handley and Ryan Matheson.

The conference addresses the challenges faced by manga and anime and the detrimental effect of regulation on creative expression in Japan. During the symposium, Brownstein will join local and international experts to talk about the censorship of content in manga and anime in both Japan and overseas.

The discussion takes place Friday, May 18, 2012, at 6:30 p.m., at the Hibiya Library Cultural Center Convention Hall (Hibiya Park, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo). The event is free, but capacity is limited, so reservations are recommended. The speakers include:

Charles Brownstein (CBLDF Executive Director)
Patrick W. Galbraith (The Otaku Encyclopedia)
Yu Sum Hayashi (Editor-in-Chief, Taiwanese anime magazine Frontier)
Rujirat Vinitphol, Ph.D. (Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo)
Kaichiro Morikawa (Associate Professor, Meiji University)
Yukari Fujimoto (Associate Professor, Meiji University),
Takashi Yamaguchi (lawyer)

Reserve your spot here. (Please note that the reservation website is in Japanese.)

Legendary illustrator and writer Maurice Sendak passed away last week at the age of 83. His Caldecott Medal winning work Where the Wild Things Are is indelibly etched into the minds of children and adults throughout the world as a flawless portrait of childhood, incorporating both the sublime and acrimonious aspects of youth. Sendak remains the only American to win the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for illustration and is well-known for creating honest characters that are headstrong, boisterous, and even unlikable.

Sendak’s books have been frequently challenged in libraries, in particular his children’s book In the Night Kitchen, another award-winning book that features a young boy’s dream journey through a baker’s kitchen. The book upset many librarians and adults because its young protagonist, Mickey, was depicted in the nude. Many librarians censored the book by painting diapers over the boy’s genitals, and in some cases the book was even burned.

Letters of Note recently ran a letter written by Sendak’s editor, Ursula Nordstrom. Nordstrom wrote to one of the librarians who burned copies of In the Night Kitchen:

I am indeed distressed to hear that in the year 1972 you burned a copy of a book. We are truly distressed that you think it is not a book for elementary school children. I assume it is the little boy’s nudity which bothers you. But truly, it does not disturb children! Mr. Sendak is a creative artist, a true genius, and he is able to speak to children directly. For children—at least up to the age of 12 or 13—are usually tremendously creative themselves. Should not those of us who stand between the creative artist and the child be very careful not to sift our reactions to such books through our own adult prejudices and neuroses? To me as editor and publisher of books for children, that is one of my greatest and most difficult duties. Believe me, we do not take our responsibilities lightly! I think young children will always react with delight to such a book as In the Night Kitchen, and that they will react creatively and wholesomely. It is only adults who ever feel threatened by Sendak’s work.

Nordstrom further gathered hundreds of signatures in defense of the book when the School Library Journal shared a news item advocating for censorship of the book by diapering the boy using paint. In her letter to librarians, professors, publishers, authors, and artists, Nordstrom responded with the following (source: Letters of Note):

At first the thought of librarians painting diapers or pants on the naked hero of Sendak’s book might seem amusing, merely a harmless eccentricity on the part of a prim few. On reconsideration, however, this behavior should be recognized for what it is: an act of censorship by mutilation rather than by obvious suppression.

A private individual who owns a book is free, of course, to do with it as he pleases; he may destroy his property, or cherish it, even paint clothes on any naked figures that appear in it. But it is an altogether different matter when a librarian disfigures a book purchased with public funds—thereby editing the work of the author—and then presents this distortion to the library’s patrons.

The mutilation of Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen by certain librarians must not be allowed to have an intimidating effect on creators and publishers of books for children. We, as writers, illustrators, publishers, critics, and librarians, deeply concerned with preserving First Amendment freedoms for everyone involved in the process of communicating ideas, vigorously protest this exercise of censorship.

You can read more about the censorship of In the Night Kitchen and Nordstrom’s advocacy on behalf of the book here.

Stephen Colbert interviewed Sendak earlier this year, asking Sendak about writing for children and his books, including In the Night Kitchen. Colbert put his own spin on the censorship that the book has experienced. You can view the interview here and here.

For more about Sendak’s life and work, visit The New York Times and Publishers Weekly.

Betsy Gomez is the Web Editor for CBLDF.

Today, the American Library Association announced the addition of ALA GraphiCon, a new mini-conference occurring within the ALA Annual Conference, which takes place June 21 – 26, 2012, in Anaheim, California. GraphiCon will provide programming that supports the inclusion of graphic novels and comic books in library collections.

ALA describes GraphiCon in their official press release:

LA GraphiCon is an innovation for 2012 ALA Annual Conference, offering a wide range of programs, events and exhibits specially for graphic novel and comic fans and anyone wanting to learn more about their role in the library. GraphiCon 2012 @ Annual includes the following programs, with details in the Conference Scheduler:

• Animated Tales: Storytelling in comics and animation and everything in between;
• (Re)telling Stories: Fanart, authorship and how stories are shared, reconstructed and retold;
• Graphic Novels & Comic in Libraries MIG Meeting; Conversation Starters: Convincing the Naysayers – Why Graphic Novels Deserve a Legitimate Place on Your Library Shelves;
• Ignite Session: Graphic Nonfiction – a 21st century way to present information; Ignite Session: The Freakiest Comic Moments of Osamu Tezuka.

Artist Alley is a new space in the exhibits hall, next to the Graphic Novel/Gaming Pavilion. Attendees can meet the artists and illustrators who create or illustrate comics, games, graphic novels and books, including: Chris Giarrusso, Matt Dembicki, Faith Erin Hicks, Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman, Chris Schweizer, Gene Luen Yang, Derek Kirk Kim and Thien Pham, Jerzy Drozd, Mark Siegel, Alexis E. Fajardo, Darren J. Gendron, Lark Pien  and Jen Wang, Anthony Del Col / Kill Shakespeare, Dan Santat, Tom Kaczynski and Gabrielle Bell and Jacob Chabot. Artist Alley artists are each donating an original piece of work for the silent auction for ALA’s scholarship fund, so don’t forget to bid!

Attendees can hear from authors, illustrators and creators of the hottest graphic novels at the Graphic Novel Stage in the exhibits—including open discussions, making comics come alive, manga previews, women in comics, the new visual literacy, imagining the fantastic and much more.

The Graphic Novel Pavilion offers the usual wide range of new and favorite materials on display from a wide range of specialist publishers, and ALA Play on Friday night is a fun event not to miss.

GraphiCon supporters can identify themselves by wearing specially designed items—get t-shirts and buttons in time to bring them to the conference! Special thanks to artist Dave Roman who drew and donated the exclusive GraphiCon logo.

Use the Conference Scheduler to plan your time, create your calendar and find out about many other Annual Conference highlights as they’re added—speakers, events, networking opportunities and more. Visit the 2012 ALA Annual Conference website for general information about the conference. Don’t miss out—register now!

CBLDF President Larry Marder and Executive Director Charles Brownstein will attend ALA’s annual conference. Like ALA, CBLDF is an official sponsor of Banned Books Week, which takes place September 30 – October 6, 2012. Banned Books Week is dedicated to “celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.” CBLDF is creating tools that retailers and librarians can use during this year’s 30th Anniversary Banned Books Week Celebration to raise awareness of challenged and banned comics and graphic novels. To get a headstart on the festivities, please check out the CBLDF Rewards Zone, where we have items such as our “I Read Banned Comics” t-shirt available to help raise money for this important program. If you have a First Amendment emergency, call 1-800-99-CBLDF!

On Wednesday, May 23, CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein will be part of a continuing legal education program discussing the PROTECT Act, the federal law under which Christopher Handley was prosecuted for the possession of child pornography. Authorities alleged that Handley’s manga collection contained obscene depictions of children in sexual situations. Several other individuals have been prosecuted and convicted under the law, which legislates that non-photographic images depicting minors in sexual situations is child pornography. Certain parts of the law have been struck down as unconstitutional, but some still stand. Brownstein will join NYU School of Law professor Amy Adler and Michael Delohery, the chief of Westchester County DA’s Office’s High Technology Crime Bureau, for a discussion about the law and the concerns of creators, publishers, and collectors of various forms of entertainment, including comics.

The program takes place at Sotheby’s Institute of Art (570 Lexington Avenue, 6th Floor, New York) on May 23, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. and it open to the public. For more details and to register for the program, visit the New York State Bar Association’s website here.

Iranian political cartoonist Mahmoud Shokraye has been sentenced to 25 lashed for his depiction of conservative Member of Parliament Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani. Ashtiani was among a group of Iranian politicians who had been criticized for interfering with the country’s sports. In his cartoon, Shokraye depicted Ashtiani dressed as a soccer player. Ashtiani sued Shokraye, claiming he was insulted by the cartoon. The resulting sentence of 25 lashes is an unprecedented punishment.

The Guardian covered the story, discussing the fallout for Iranian cartoonists:

[Shokraye's] sentence has triggered outcry among Iran‘s online community with many calling on cartoonists to draw new caricatures of the MP. Many have expressed their anger on Twitter and Facebook.

Speaking to the Guardian, Nikahang Kowsar, a prominent Iranian cartoonist who fell foul of the Iranian regime after famously caricaturing a prominent cleric like a crocodile in a series of cartoons, said: “This verdict is a direct threat to each and every cartoonist working inside Iran. From now on, if this sentence is not set aside, any public official could sue the cartoonists for portraying him/her in a cartoon.”

Kowsar, a member of the board of Cartoonists Rights Network International, has also participated in the campaign of drawing Ashtiani’s cartoon. “In the past, cartoonists were prohibited from drawing clerics, but from now on, non-clerics have joined the league of the ‘sacred cow’,” he said.

“Right now, a number of Iranian cartoonists have had to leave the country in fear of imprisonment, and the rest have either quit the business, or are censoring themselves to avoid persecution and imprisonment.” Kowsar currently lived in the United States. Another Iranian cartoonist, Mana Neyestani, who was also the victim of state’s aggression towards cartoonists in Iran, has also drawn a cartoon of Ashtiani.

For more on the story, visit The Guardian here.

Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work and reporting on issues such as this by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!