Defining Deviancy Up: The Red Rose Convinction

[elfs]

Over at Pendorwright, I've posted a rather long article about the recent conviction of Karen Fletcher, AKA "Red Rose," in the very first "obscene works of fiction" prosecution since 1973. Fletcher's work was undeniably vile, but it was still fiction, and her convinction and sentencing should send a chill through any creative writer no matter how far his or her efforts are from Fletcher's own twisted imaginings.

Comments

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Here in the UK, things may well be worse.

We have a possession law for child porn, even when the "child" is old enough to lawfully marry.

A new law does the same for "extreme porn", whatever that might be. Nobody knows yet, although a "snuff" movie would certainly fit. Some of the "video nasties" would. And something which has passed through the cinema/video rating system wouldn't be affected anyway.

I think they're out to intimidate people. The purpose isn't to lock up Hayao Miyazaki over the bath scene in Totoro, it's to scare us all into thinking that, if we make any trouble for them, they can find something to strike back with.

All they have to do is investigate, and take away our computers, and the data, and all the backups. For somebody such as yourself, perhaps they would do the same to the computer you use at work.

I'm not sure if it even makes a difference which political party gets involved. They all have a greed for power.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Um, print out hard copies and bury them in a fireproof box in the back yard? I mean WTF?

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I seem to have exaggerated a little: the new British "extreme porn" law only covers images.

The current Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_pornography) does look to cover the basics pretty well.

But you really need to check on Operation Spanner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Spanner) as well: there are some things you cannot consent to under English law, and one of the exceptions depends on consent. BDSM is a tricky area.

Elf is lucky to be dealing in text, even with the recent US court cases. It seems Karen Fletcher didn't set a precedent, since there was no trial of the issues. But he's not crazy enough to want to get hauled in front of a court.

Since I do stuff using CGI, I might get away with pushing the limits, because the law only applies to images which look real. It's that reasonable man business again. So do CGI furries look real?