[LAF] When does kinky porn become illegal?

Wed May 14 09:57:01 UTC 2008

Some very powerful points there Melanie, I've forwarded this email on to the LAF site for further discussion.

  Speak soon, Bx

davmarquise at aol.com wrote:
  Thanks Barry

This law is not about the depiction of violence or injury to another person, not about animal rights or the depiction of cruelty to animals, or the depiction of desecration of the deceased. You can still own images which show a person being cut in half by a hail of bullets, or sliced in half with a sword. You can own an image which shows animal cruelty and neglect, which shows dead bodies, or apparently dead bodies for comic effect without fear. What this law does is criminalise a persons sexuality (people like your friend dace and myself), not because they have ever committed any of the offences but for simply possessing any image showing any of the above in a sexual context. Watching a Quentin Tarantino movie like Kill Bill, seeing Uma Thurman slicing and dicing bodies right and left won't cause anyone to copy her or deprave and corrupt anyone watching. However possessing a single image of two consenting adults indulging in consensual sexual activity, where an arbitrary
 person can assume that damage occurred, or that in their narrow minded opinion, appeared to occur can result in a criminal record and a place on the sex offenders register. This law is leaving every member of this country open to Russian roulette insofar as the legal system is concerned. It is so ill defined that any court, should it be so inclined, can twist this legislation to any end it feels justified in achieving with the result that decent law abiding citizens will be persecuted for their sexuality simply because a very narrow minded section of society disapproves of anything different.     
This will drag Britain back to the bad old days and bring the government back into the bedroom, just like they did with gay male sexuality not so long ago. It will waste police time and resources addressing a non existent crime when they should be catching the people like Graham Coutts who do commit crimes and are justly punished for them.

What a blow to the already stigmatised bdsm community and those of an alternative sexuality that this law has been passed.

  Mx

-----Original Message-----
From: Barry ODea <barryjodea at yahoo.co.uk>
To: melanie anarchist <davmarquise at aol.com>
Sent: Tue, 13 May 2008 15:45
Subject: Fwd: [LAF] When does kinky porn become illegal?

  fyi

Note: forwarded message attached.     
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        From:  Volodya . <ethical_anarhist at yahoo.com>    To:  laf at lists.aktivix.org    Subject:  [LAF] When does kinky porn become illegal?    Date:  Fri, 9 May 2008 10:27:52 -0700 (PDT)

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7364475.stm    When does kinky porn become illegal?    By Chris Summers  BBC News    A bill outlawing the possession of "extreme pornography" is set to become   law next week. But many fear it has been rushed through and will   criminalise innocent people with a harmless taste for unconventional sex.    Five years ago Jane Longhurst, a teacher from Brighton, was murdered. It   later emerged her killer had been compulsively accessing websites such as   Club Dead and Rape Action, which contained images of women being abused   and violated.    When Graham Coutts was jailed for life Jane Longhurst's mother, Liz,   began a campaign to ban the possession of such images.    WHAT IS EXTREME PORNOGRAPHY?  A man browses pornographic DVDs in a shop  As defined by the new Criminal Justice Bill  An act which threatens or appears to threaten a person's life  An act which results in or appears to result in serious injury to a   person's anus, breasts
 or genitals  An act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a   human corpse  A person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral   sex with an animal    Supported by her local MP, Martin Salter, she found a listening ear in   then home secretary, David Blunkett, who agreed to introduce legislation   to ban the possession of "violent and extreme pornography".    This was eventually included in the Criminal Justice and Immigration   Bill, which gets its final reading this week and will get Royal Assent on   8 May.    Until now pornographers, rather than consumers, have needed to operate   within the confines of the 1959 Obscene Publications Act (OPA). While   this law will remain, the new act is designed to reflect the realities of   the internet age, when pornographic images may be hosted on websites   outside the UK.    Under the new rules, criminal responsibility shifts from the producer -   who is responsible under the OPA -
 to the consumer.    But campaigners say the new law risks criminalising thousands of people   who use violent pornographic images as part of consensual sexual   relationships.    People like Helen, who by day works in an office in the Midlands, and   enjoys being sexually submissive and occasionally watching pornography,   portrayed by actors, which could be banned under the new legislation.  She feels the new law is an over-reaction to the Longhurst case.    "Mrs Longhurst sees this man having done this to her daughter and she   wants something to blame and rather than blame this psychotic man she   wants to change the law but she doesn't really understand the situation,"   says Helen.    "Do you ban alcohol just because some people are alcoholics?"    She has an ally in Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer, a Liberal   Democrat peer who has fought to have the legislation amended.    "Obviously anything that leads to violence against women has to be taken   very
 seriously," says Baroness Miller. "But you have to be very careful   about the definition of 'extreme pornography' and they have not nearly   been careful enough."    She has suggested the new act adopt the legal test set out in the OPA,   which bans images which "tend to deprave and corrupt".    But the government has sought to broaden the definition and the bill   includes phrases such as "an act which threatens or appears to threaten a   person's life".    Speaking from her home in Berkshire, Mrs Longhurst acknowledges that   libertarians see her as "a horrible killjoy".    I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG  A lot of people would like to march and demonstrate against this law but   if you stick your head above the parapet you are going to get yourself in   the firing line  Helen defends extreme porn  Click here to read more  "I'm not. I do not approve of this stuff but there is room for all sorts   of different people. But anything which is going to cause damage to other  
 people needs to be stopped."    To those who fear the legislation might criminalise people who use   violent pornography as a harmless sex aid, she responds with a blunt   "hard luck".    "There is no reason for this stuff. I can't see why people need to see   it. People say what about our human rights but where are Jane's human   rights?"    A spanking exhibition at Amora sex museum in London  What is considered obscene has changed over the years    Recently, the much-publicised rompings of Formula 1 boss Max Mosley have   served as a reminder that kinky sex is found in all walks of society.    And just as Mr Mosley is fighting the expose of his antics, calling it an   invasion of private life, so Baroness Miller says the new law also   threatens people's privacy.    "The government is effectively walking into people's bedrooms and saying   you can't do this. It's a form of thought police."    She says there's a danger of "criminalising kinkiness" and fears the  
 legislation has been rushed through Parliament without proper debate   because it is a small part of a wider bill.    Deborah Hyde, of Backlash, an umbrella group of anti-censorship and   alternative sexuality pressure groups, has similar concerns.      Having engaged in it consensually would not be a crime, but to have a   photograph of it in one's possession would be a crime. That does not seem   to make sense to me  Lord Wallace of Tankerness    "How many tens or hundreds or thousands of people are going to be dragged   into a police station, have their homes turned upside down, their   computers stolen and their neighbours suspecting them of all sorts?"    Such "victims" won't feel able to fight the case and "will take a   caution, before there are enough test cases to prove that this law is   unnecessary and unworkable".    Another opponent of the new law is Edward Garnier, an MP and part-time   judge, who questioned the clause when it was debated in the Commons.   
 "My primary concern is the vagueness of the offence," says Mr Garnier.   "It was very subjective and it would not be clear to me how anybody would   know if an offence had been committed."    But the Ministry of Justice is unrepentant, saying the sort of images it   is seeking to outlaw are out of place in modern-day Britain.    "Pornographic material which depicts necrophilia, bestiality or violence   that is life threatening or likely to result in serious injury to the   anus, breasts or genitals has no place in a modern society and should not   be tolerated," says a spokeswoman for the ministry.  Graham Coutts  Graham Coutts, who killed Jane Longhurst after viewing extreme pornography    Yet opponents have also seized on what they see as an anomaly in the new   law, noted by Lord Wallace of Tankerness during last week's debate in the   House of Lords.    "If no sexual offence is being committed it seems very odd indeed that   there should be an offence for having an
 image of something which was not   an offence," he said.    With that partly in mind, the government is tabling an amendment that   would allow couples to keep pictures of themselves engaged in consensual   acts - but not to distribute them. Lord Hunt, who has charge of the bill   in the Lords, admits it is being rushed through to meet a deadline. But   he denies the law has not been thoroughly considered and maintains it   will only affect images that are "grossly offensive and disgusting".            ____________________________________________________________________________________  Be a better friend, newshound, and   know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ      _______________________________________________  LAF mailing list  LAF at lists.aktivix.org  https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/laf  

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