JayDee Posted May 24, 2013 Report Posted May 24, 2013 https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130505/14372422951/court-finds-fantasy-stories-obscene.shtml Just recently a federal district court in Georgia ruled that a series of stories written or edited by Frank McCoy were obscene, and thus he violated 18 USC 1462 in "transporting" obscene works. McCoy challenged whether or not the stories themselves could be considered obscene. As you might imagine, the subject matter is not mainstream. It is definitely on the extreme. Just reading the descriptions from the court case, which I will not repeat here, made me cringe and feel extremely uncomfortable. We're talking about extremely taboo subjects that are somewhat horrifying even just to read. But, again, one could argue the same sorts of things about Lolita, or any number of other works. Should they, too, be deemed obscene? It seems like a dangerous slippery slope, especially when we're talking about purely written material. In this case, McCoy even had a distinguished English professor testify on his behalf that the works had "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value." Bolding mine. Judge disagreed. Check out the rest of the article, or link to court ruling Will this as a federal court ruling affect adult-fanfiction.org? Quote
DemonGoddess Posted May 24, 2013 Report Posted May 24, 2013 I expect with this being a first amendment thing, that this may very well go up higher than this, as it's currently at a state level, even though in Federal Court. Worst case scenario, I could see us having to put age limitations on posted content. Quote
JayDee Posted May 25, 2013 Author Report Posted May 25, 2013 I sure hope it gets knocked out higher up, I for one would not enjoy life in a Georgia prison for writing dirty stories. BronxWench 1 Quote
foeofthelance Posted May 28, 2013 Report Posted May 28, 2013 Do we not already have age limitations on content? I thought that was what the whole, "18 or older only on this site" thing was about. Quote
DemonGoddess Posted May 28, 2013 Report Posted May 28, 2013 The problem is the content itself, and ages of characters WITHIN the content. That's what the case is about. Quote
Tigro Spottystripes Posted May 30, 2013 Report Posted May 30, 2013 (edited) The problem is the content itself, and ages of characters WITHIN the content. That's what the case is about. Jailing people for molesting fictional characters is seriously fucked up. I wonder if we're heading into a new dark age... Damn book burners will be the doom of us all... Edited May 30, 2013 by Tigro Spottystripes Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.