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Features, Homepage, News Blog

The Good Fighters: TFAW’s Andrew McIntire and Elisabeth Forsythe

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To help fund its fight for Free Speech, CBLDF relies on many people, including the retailers who keep us in comic books and graphic novels. Retailers support us by becoming members, leaving a collection can on the counter, and putting on events in their stores to benefit CBLDF.

In the case of Things From Another World’s Senior Director of Retail Operations Andrew McIntire and Marketing Manager Elisabeth Forsythe, helping CBLDF has become a bit of an obsession. Three years ago, they launched an annual campaign to collect original art donations for CBLDF’s auction at Comic-Con International, helping the Fund raise thousands of dollars in the process. Each summer, they dedicate themselves to soliciting and gathering donations from comics creators around the world, making sure CBLDF has an amazing array of original art up for bid. From this art, they make a series of autograph cards that both promote the auction and CBLDF.

McIntire and Forsythe are both diehard comics fans, with a knowledge and love for the medium that few can stand up to. They’re off to a good start with this year’s auction, as you can see here, and we took a moment to talk to them about CBLDF and their perspective on Free Speech as retailers in this edition of The Good Fighters.

Please support the CBLDF’s defense of Free Speech by making a donation or becoming a member today!

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Fundraising, Homepage, Legal, News Blog

CBLDF Applauds Ruling Invalidating Alaska Censorship Law!

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The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund welcomes today’s decision to bar enforcement of an Alaska criminal statute that the Federal District Court held threatened to reduce all speech on the Internet “to only what is fit for children.” The court permanently barred enforcement of that statute because it violates First Amendment rights of free speech.

The CBLDF participated as a plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by Alaska booksellers, librarians, a photographer, and other First Amendment and media organizations through the Media Coalition. Chief U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline held that Senate Bill 222, which could have made anyone who operates a website criminally liable for posting material deemed “harmful to minors,” would have chilled free expression. “There are no reasonable technological means that enable a speaker on the Internet to ascertain the actual age of persons who access their communications,” the Court held. “Individuals who fear the possibility of a minor receiving speech intended for an adult may refrain from exercising their right to free speech at all – an unacceptable result.” [more…]


Please support the CBLDF’s defense of free speech issues like this by making a donation today!

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Features, Fundraising, Headline, Homepage, News Blog

CBLDF Looks to Canada Customs Case

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Last week, CBLDF announced that we are forming a coalition to defend a new case involving an American citizen facing charges in Canada that could result in a minimum sentence of one year in prison and registering as a sex offender.

In 2010, an American citizen, computer programmer, and comic book enthusiast in his mid-20s was flying from his home in the United States to Canada to visit a friend. Upon arrival at Canadian Customs, a customs officer conducted a search of the American and his personal belongings, including his laptop, iPad, and iPhone. The customs officer discovered manga on the laptop and deemed it child pornography. Consequently, the American has been charged with both the possession of child pornography as well as its importation into Canada. As a result, if convicted at trial, the American faces a minimum of one year in prison.

Since the announcement, more information about the case emerged in the ensuing media coverage. more

CBLDF needs your help! Please make a monetary contribution here. Find out more on the case here. If you or someone you know is traveling internationally, please read our Advisory on traveling with comics before getting on the plane.

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Features, Fundraising, Homepage, News Blog

Larry Marder’s CBLDF Liberty Cards Diary #11

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Hello Friends of Liberty!

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization is dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights of the comic book community. That means all of us: creators, publishers, distributors, retailers, librarians, and fans. It’s CBLDF’s mission to spring into action whenever and wherever we are needed to protect freedom of speech.

We are living in transitional times. In the past, much of the suppression of free speech focused on comic book shops. As the 21st century unfolds, some overzealous people forget how the constitution guarantees our rights to express ourselves without the censorship or impediment of government.

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Features, Homepage, News Blog

The Good Fighters: Molly Crabapple

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A fine artist and the founder of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, Molly Crabapple creates work that provokes desire in some and the urge to silence in others. Her work also openly embraces sexuality, influenced by her experience as a model and burlesque dancer, which often brings her into opposition with censorship. Thus, she’s become an eloquent and devout supporter of free expression.

With Crabapple’s recent donation to CBLDF of an intricately-detailed 8′ by 7′ art monster — you can bid on it here — we took a moment to chat with her for this edition of The Good Fighters.

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Features, Fundraising, Homepage, News Blog

The Good Fighters: Jeffrey Brown

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Jeffrey Brown finds truth in the personal and intimate details that dominate our lives. Even his most autobiographical work is relatable, adeptly capturing the unease we all occasionally feel as we go about life.

Brown’s first book, Clumsy, defined his ability to articulate the bittersweetness and awkwardness that follows most people around, an ability that is further demonstrated in Ignatz winner I Am Going to Be Small, Unlikely, Little Things, and Funny Misshapen Body. Brown is also an established humorist and absurdist, as shown in the observational humor of Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Cats Are Weird and the superhero parody Incredible Change-Bots.

In person, Brown is quiet but articulate, a keen observer of the people and things around him — he always seems to be looking for the next drawing or story. On the eve of his Incredible Change Bots art opening at Brooklyn’s Scott Eder Gallery, Brown took a moment to talk about his motivations for supporting free expression in this installment of The Good Fighters .

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Homepage, Legal, News Blog

CBLDF Applauds Amendment to 2010 Massachusetts Law Removing Restrictions on Internet Speech

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Following a successful legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, local booksellers, and others, including the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Governor Deval Patrick yesterday signed into law an amendment to controversial 2010 legislation that imposed severe restrictions on Internet content, including discussion of topics such as literature, art, and sexual and reproductive health.

The amendment, which goes into effect immediately, is a direct response to the granting of a preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel last fall that found the law likely violated the First Amendment. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the bill in order to address the constitutional flaws in the existing law. CBLDF joined the Harvard Book Store, Porter Square Books, the Photographic Resource Center, a licensed marriage and family therapist, trade associations, and the ACLU of Massachusetts in filing suit last July to block the law because it made providers of constitutionally protected speech on the Internet criminally liable if such material might be deemed “harmful to minors.”

“Comic book creators and retailers are pleased to see this amendment go into effect, because it protects their constitutionally protected works as they are circulated and sold online,” said Charles Brownstein, Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

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Homepage, News Blog

First Amendment Fan Boys

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Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly checked in with CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein about the Fund’s new digs and plans for 2011. Brownstein expects a busy year:

“Stuff keeps coming in, comics are being challenged in libraries, librarians and patrons are being harassed by law enforcement and the issue is growing and very often its about comics,” Brownstein continued. “Librarians are getting threatening calls at home. As long as comics are cool, they will be challenged.”

Check out the Publisher’s Weekly article here.

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Homepage, Legal, News Blog

CBLDF Wins 2010 Downs Intellectual Freedom Award

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For their dedication to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) has been selected to receive the 2010 Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award given by the faculty of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Homepage, Legal, News Blog

A Divided Supreme Court Ponders the Fate of California Law Restricting Violent Video Games

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Robert Corn-Revere, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s general counsel, provides a detailed summary and analysis of the oral arguments in Schwarzenegger v. EMA, which was argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week. One of the country’s leading First Amendment experts, Corn-Revere successfully litigated U.S. v. Stevens and recently wrote the CBLDF’s amicus brief in the Schwarzenegger case. Full story follows the jump.

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