A Swedish manga translator and expert of Japanese comics has been found guilty of possessing child pornography. Police found 51 drawings with nudity on the man’s harddrive following a raid, images the translator told the court was research for him to stay updated within his expert field.
The translator was found guilty by the district court and was sentenced to pay 24800 Swedish Crowns (approximately €2650 or §3400) in fines.
During the hearing, the translator told the court he had saved images he found on the internet as genre samples, for personal and professional use. In its verdict, the court said that it must be restrictive in allowing possession of child pornography as research material. For his purposes, the court argued, the man didn’t need all of the images.
A comment to the news story, presumably written by the translator himself though this isn’t verified, says:
“I have a collection of about three thousand manga books with millions of drawings, some of which are of erotic nature. Among those, there were about thirty (some duplicates) which the prosecutor believed to be criminal. And there were no hardcore images, mostly just nudity. This is NOT about drawings that depicts violent penetration if anyone thinks so. Simple nude drawings of cartoon characters are categorized as pornography.”
On the website of the Swedish police, one can read the following piece of information:
“The Police considers every image of child pornography a documented violation. [...] Digitalized drawings and animations that portray children in a pornographic context are considered child pornography. The ban against portraying and possessing is not applicable to the person who has drawn or painted the image as long as it isn’t made available to others.”
Of course! A drawing is a “documented violation” unless you draw it yourself. And don’t show anyone.
I’m as sickened and offended by child pornography as anyone, but this just seems ridiculous. On so many levels.
(via Vertigomannen)
