Category: Legal

Tunisian Trial Over Airing of Persepolis Movie Delayed Until April

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by Betsy Gomez

The trial of Nabil Karoui, the director of Tunisia’s Nessma television channel, has been delayed until April. Karoui is on trial because he approved the airing of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s film adaptation of her critically acclaimed graphic novel. The movie has a scene that depicts God, a portrayal that is not permitted in many Islamic areas. Karoui is accused of “insulting sacred values, offending decent morals and causing public unrest.” The airing of Persepolis has divided people in Tunisia, with defenders arguing for the right to free expression and some extremists resorting to violence to try to shut down Nessma. For more on the trial, visit Al Arabiya News.

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!

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First Amendment Center Analyzes Supreme Court Decision on Golan v. Holder

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by Betsy Gomez

Last year, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Golan v. Holder, a case that pitted copyright law against the First Amendment. This week, the Supreme Court passed down their decision on the case, a 6-2 vote that upheld the Uruguay Round Agreements Act that extended copyright protection to creative foreign works that had previously been in the public domain in the United States.

The decision is considered a blow to free speech because Golan and fellow petitioners argued that the removal of works from the public domain — works by Igor Stravinsky, Virginia Woolf, Alfred Hitchcock, and more — violates their First Amendment right to use the works to express themselves. Golan further argued that Congress overreached when they passed a law that removed the works from the public domain. Because the Supreme Court upheld the law, works that were once free to use now require payment to do so. As an example, an orchestra that plays a Stravinsky symphony may now have to pay for that right.

Keep reading…

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!

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Retailer Advisory: How To Manage A Media Attack

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Today Bleeding Cool ran a piece linking to a local news promo promising a titillating exposé on modern comics that will offer tips on “HOW TO K.O. THESE COMICS BEFORE THEY CORRUPT YOUR KIDS!” These media scare stories are nothing new. They’ve been plaguing comics since the very beginning, whether it was massive public comic book burnings in the 1940s, Frederic Wertham’s attacks in the 1950s, or the retailer stings of the 1980s that led to the CBLDF being formed. While we’ve seen this type of story arise time and again, it should never be taken lightly. Below we offer some tips on how to deal with hostile cameras if they come to your store.

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Study Questions Supreme Court’s Protection of the First Amendment

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With the much ballyhooed wins for free speech in cases like Brown v. EMA and more, many commentators commended a John Roberts-led Supreme Court that upheld our right to free speech. A recent study questions whether the current Supreme Court is as supportive of free speech as we think it is.

Keep reading for excerpts from the New York Times and other sources analyzing the study.

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!

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ACLU Asks Missouri Library to Stop Censoring Websites

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In addition to protecting our right to free speech, the First Amendment also guarantees freedom of religion, including the ability to find information on various faiths. Today, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit charging the Salem Public Library with unconstitutional censorship for blocking access to information about minority religions. In particular, information about Native American practices and Wicca were blocked because they were classified as “occult” or “criminal.”

In their press release, the ACLU justifies their action:

“The library has no business blocking these websites as “occult’ or ‘criminal” in the first place and certainly shouldn’t be making arbitrary follow-up decisions based on the personal predilections of library staff,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “Public libraries should be facilitating access to educational information, not blocking it.”

Such censorship by libraries has chilling implications, as the blocking of material could be extended to impact other legitimate educational material, including comics. You can find ACLU’s official press release here.

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Today In Comics Showcases First Wave of Comics Code Censorship Articles

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57 years ago today the first news of how the recently formed Comics Code Authority censored comics hit the wires, and Tim Stroup’s excellent “Today In Comics” blog has the clippings. Stroup gathers stories from five news services that covered Comics Code administrator Charles Murphy’s press conference touting the organization’s work to diminish the impact of images containing sexuality and violence within comic books.

Earlier this year the Comics Code Authority closed its doors and the CBLDF acquired the intellectual property rights to the Code’s Seal of Approval. Thus ended an era of censorship that sanitized the medium’s output, and established a stigma against comics that would endure until recent years. Dr. Amy Nyberg created a short history of the Seal of Approval for the CBLDF.

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CBLDF Releases Year-End Appeal Comic!

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The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is proud to release The Comic Book Fan’s Worst NIGHTMARE!, our 2011 year-end comic showcasing our current casework. Boasting new work by Jeffrey Brown, Ming Doyle, J. Gonzo, Michael Kupperman, Tony Shasteen, and more, the comic is available for free on Comixology and at CBLDF.org!

The CBLDF’s new comic recounts our work defending Brandon X, an American citizen facing a minimum sentence of one year in prison for possessing horror and fantasy manga on his laptop computer. His case is expected to go to trial in 2012, and legal expenses are estimated to run $150,000. Please make a tax-deductible contribution to CBLDF today to help us defend this case, and to create tools for retailers, librarians, and readers to help protect against cases like this happening in the future!

The CBLDF exists because of the grass-roots support of individuals like you! Please support our work by making a tax-deductible donation, signing up or renewing your membership, or signing up a friend for a gift membership. Contributions and membership donations are tax-deductible in the year they’re given. In addition, the Will & Ann Eisner Family Foundation will make a $5 donation to the CBLDF for every new or renewing membership contribution made by 12/31.

Please help the CBLDF continue our important work — donate today!

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CBLDF General Counsel Robert Corn-Revere on Social Science and Censorship

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Earlier this year, free speech advocates, including CBLDF, won a victory with Brown v. EMA (formerly Schwarzennegger v. EMA), a Supreme Court decision that struck down a California law that violated the First Amendment and would have included violence among unprotected expression, alongside obscenity. Had the California law stood, it would have impinged upon the First Amendment rights of minors and their parents. It would have had additional repercussions, likely leading to the censorship of violence in other entertainment media, including comic books.

In a recent article for Media Law Monitor — Moral Panics, the First Amendment, and the Limits of Social Science — CBLDF General Counsel Robert Corn-Revere analyzed the Brown v. EMA decision, discussing the lack of scientific evidence that proponents for the regulation of violent speech claimed to have.

Keep reading for excerpts from the article…

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CBLDF & ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom Speak Out In Defense of Comic Facing Removal From School Library

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Later today, a hearing in Dixfield, ME will address a parent’s call for removal of the anthology Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age from the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School Library.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom sent a letter of support for the anthology, which was edited by Ariel Schrag and includes contributions from award winning graphic novelists Daniel Clowes, Dash Shaw, Gabrielle Bell, Lauren Weinstein, and others. The book received praise from professional review sources such as Booklist, New York Times, and Publishers Weekly, and it was selected for New York Public Library’s “Books for the Teen Age” list in 2008.

A PDF of the letter is available here: cbldf stuck in the middle letter

The full text of the letter is also reproduced after the jump.

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