In 2011, the National Assembly of South Korea revised laws surrounding child pornography to cover materials featuring “creations of persons who can be perceived as minors” in sexual situations, expanding the definition of illegal practices to include the perceptions of…
Violent Content Research Act Raises Free Speech Concerns
Video games, the latest scapegoat in the war against gun violence, are being faced with yet another attempt to stifle their First Amendment rights. As a result of the Sandy Hook massacre and other recent tragedies, a new act is…
The Inconvenience of Barefoot Gen
Translator and manga industry expert Dan Kanemitsu submitted the following opinion piece on the recent ban of Barefoot Gen from the perspective of being close to the ground in recent battles involving manga regulation in Japan. In December of 2010,…
New Zealand Library Refuses to Carry Lost Girls
When New Zealand cartoonist Dylan Horrocks (Hicksville, Batgirl) requested that his local Auckland library purchase a copy of Alan Moore’s Lost Girls, the library denied his request with the argument that the book potentially violated New Zealand law. Horrocks received…
Obscenity Case Files: Smith v. California
It was established in Roth v. United States that the freedom of speech would not extend to materials that were considered obscene. But what happens to a book store that unknowingly carries books that contain obscene material? Is a book…
Indianapolis Library Refuses to Censor Erotic Novel
An Indiana library is facing some heat after a 9-year-old obtained an erotic novel using the self-check out system. After the child left the library with a copy of the erotic novel Night Games by Crystal Jordan, the child’s grandmother,…