The illegality of cartoon CP in the USA *TRIGGERING*

In response to Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, Congress passed the PROTECT Act of 2003 (also dubbed the Amber Alert Law) and it was signed into law on April 30, 2003 by then president George W. Bush. The law enacted 18 U.S.C. § 1466A, which criminalizes material that has "a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture or painting", that "depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and is "obscene" or "depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in ... sexual intercourse ... and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value".

By its own terms, the law does not make all simulated child pornography illegal, only that found to be obscene or lacking in serious value. And mere possession of said images is not a violation of the law unless it can be proven that they were transmitted through a common carrier, such as the mail or the internet, or transported across state lines. There is also an affirmative defense made for possession of no more than two images with "reasonable steps to destroy" the images or reporting and turning over the images to law enforcement.

In Richmond, Virginia, on December 2005, Dwight Whorley was convicted under 18 U.S.C. 1466A for using a Virginia Employment Commission computer to receive "...obscene Japanese anime cartoons that graphically depicted prepubescent female children being forced to engage in genital-genital and oral-genital intercourse with adult males." He was also convicted of possessing child pornography involving real children. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

On December 18, 2008 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction. The court stated that "it is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exists." Attorneys for Mr. Whorley have said that they will appeal to the Supreme Court. The request for rehearing was denied on June 15, 2009 and the petition for his case to be reviewed by the Supreme Court was denied on January 11, 2010.

In October 2010, a 33 year old Idaho man, Steven Kutzner, entered into a plea agreement concerning images of child characters from the American animated television show, The Simpsons engaged in sexual acts.[55][56] In January 2011, Kutzner was sentenced to serve 15 months in federal prison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartoon_porn#Cartoon_pornography_depicting_minors wrote:Cartoon pornography depicting minors
Main article: Legal status of cartoon pornography depicting minors
As of the PROTECT Act of 2003, the legal status of cartoon pornography with minors has been more thoroughly addressed and refined than it was before under the previous law of the United States. The new act made any realistic appearing computer generated depiction that is indistinguishable from a depiction of an actual minor in sexual situations or engaging in sexual acts illegal under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A. Drawings, cartoons, sculptures, and paintings of minors in sexual situations that do not pass the Miller test were made illegal under 18 U.S.C. § 1466A thus creating a loop hole around the Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition decision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test wrote:The Miller test was developed in the 1973 case Miller v. California.[2] It has three parts:

Whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law,
Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.[3]
The work is considered obscene only if all three conditions are satisfied.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patently_offensive wrote:Patently offensive is a term used in United States law regarding obscenity and the First Amendment.

The phrase "patently offensive" first appeared in Roth v. United States, referring to any obscene acts or materials that are considered to be openly, plainly, or clearly visible as offensive to the viewing public. The Roth standard outlined what is to be considered obscene and thus not under First Amendment protection. The Roth standard was largely replaced by the Miller test established by Miller v. California (1973).

Roth standard

According to the "Roth Standard" a work is obscene if:

The dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex,
The material is patently offensive because it affronts contemporary community standards relating to the description or representation of sexual matters,
The material is utterly without redeeming social value
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, writing for the majority, included the following definitions of what may be "patently offensive":

"Representations or descriptions of ultimate sex acts normal or perverted, actual or simulated."
"Representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, and lewd exhibitions of the genitals."

Alevi wrote:EDIT: Also, where do you get "The Supreme Court no longer holds this to be protected speech.", from?

Alevi wrote:The way I see it, the law is inhuman, and I am a human, hence I have no reason to take it into account.

likewise wrote:Except the one that even sociopaths have (no offense to sociopaths) that you might get caught?

likewise wrote:The point of my post was not to argue the merits of the law, but to make people aware of what side of the law they're on.

Alevi wrote:But if you can draw some conformist-masturbatory satisfaction from brainwashing yourself into thinking that you are a law-abiding citizen - which neither you nor anybody else are - then I think that would be the fetish-forum.

likewise wrote:I just think that if people want to view this material they should be informed of the potential risks.

...mere possession of said images is not a violation of the law unless it can be proven that they were transmitted through a common carrier, such as the mail or the internet, or transported across state lines.