Fan Fiction Author Charged With Obscenity In The UK

from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept

Apparently, it's not just the US that has decided to jump back into the murky waters of charging people with obscenity charges for stuff they put online. Over in the UK, a guy is facing an obscenity charge for a bit of fiction that he wrote. There are communities of folks online who often write fiction involving "famous" characters, whether from TV or movies or, in some cases, from real life. The whole concept, frankly, strikes me as a little bit odd, but for those who want to do it, I don't see why they shouldn't be allowed to do so. In this case, the guy wrote some apparently graphic fiction about a band in the UK and is now being charged with publishing obscene materials. If he loses, I would imagine that there are large groups of folks who post this sort of (yes, ridiculously distasteful) stuff online, who could be facing similar charges. I have enough difficulty understanding obscenity laws that go after people in online communities where the content is, in no way, pushed on others -- but it seems even more bizarre to include obscenity charges for fictional writing.

17 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Oct 13th 2008 4:05am

What Are 'Community Standards' When It Comes To Obscenity Online?

from the time-to-fix-the-definition dept

With a guy found guilty of distributing hardcore pornography online sentenced to 46 months in prison, plenty of people are beginning to question obscenity laws and how they apply to the internet. As you probably know, the standard for "obscenity" is a bit subjective -- as it's supposed to be based on local "community standards." That may have made sense when a local community was clearly definable, but it becomes a lot trickier when communities are a lot more complex. Not only does the internet challenge traditional concepts concerning legal jurisdiction, but it also changes how you define a "community." Choosing a local community based on geography makes very little sense when it comes to an online obscenity case, as there's probably not much of a chance that folks in that community were actually impacted by the content. Yet, in this case, prosecutors did some jurisdiction shopping, and found a conservative local community in which to file the case. That could lead to some very dangerous precedents, where "community standards" are based on the lowest common denominator, rather than the actual community involved.

What makes this tricky, also, is the fact that obscenity laws, like copyright laws are actually designed for a "broadcast media" world, where the worry is how a "publisher" produces some kind of content and pushes it out to a mass audience. Yet, the internet isn't designed as a broadcast media, but a communications one -- and suddenly the line gets a lot more blurry. Can you be thrown in jail for sending an obscene joke to a friend? Most people would think that's silly. But when the "audience" gets bigger, then the questions start to creep in, and the law is not equipped to handle it. If this content is only seen by those who seek it out, then is it really doing any actual "damage" to innocent people who are worried about being corrupted by obscenity? Either way, it looks like we may once again need to struggle with adapting laws to the very different nature of the internet.

27 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Jun 24th 2008 1:37pm

Using Google Trends To Determine 'Community Standards' Of Obscenity

from the knew-that-data-would-come-in-handy-sometime dept

While there are plenty of reasons to have trouble with "obscenity" laws, one of the biggest is the ridiculously vague "contemporary community standards" test established by the Supreme Court. How does one show what the community standards are when it concerns activities done in the privacy of one's own home? Well, apparently, at least one defense attorney in an obscenity case has decided that Google Trends is the answer. He's planning to show that more people in the local community are using Google to search for the word "orgy" than for "apple pie" or "watermelon." That's pretty amusing, but probably not very convincing. How often are people really going to search for "apple pie?" Still, it does seem to suggest how silly the whole process is of determining what contemporary community standards should be.

9 Comments | Leave a Comment..

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Fan Fiction Author Charged With Obscenity In The UK

from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept

What Are 'Community Standards' When It Comes To Obscenity Online?

from the time-to-fix-the-definition dept

Using Google Trends To Determine 'Community Standards' Of Obscenity

from the knew-that-data-would-come-in-handy-sometime dept

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