Sender: •••@••.••• (Sandra Bernstein) Not just computer-generated. We had a case here in Toronto Canada where a visual artist, Eli Langer, created some paintings and drawings that portrayed nightmarish images of child abuse. They were displayed in a reputable alternative gallery. After a critique in the local paper, the police seized the paintings and charged him with child pornography, which carries very heavy penalties here and puts the burden of proof of the defence of artistic merit on the defendant. They later dropped the charges against Langer but kept the art on trial, which was lucky for him but somewhat surreal. The judge ruled that the work had artistic merit and dismissed the case, also asking for involvement of the courts before police lay such charges, but didn't state categorically that works of the imagination (without models) are exempt. Langer's appealing the constitutional issues to the Supreme Court of Canada. Accounts of the case are available on line (The Globe and Mail) and Infomart (Toronto Star) by searching on Eli Langer. He's a young artist and any hits would have to do with this case. There was also a case in Ontario where a guy scanned pictures of kids from innocuous dept. store catalogues and digitally altered them to add prominent genitals etc. He was charged and convicted. EFC has stuff on line at http://insight.mcmaster.ca/org/efc/pages/law/court/R.v.Pecciarich.html It's an interesting question. Sandra Bernstein >Sender: •••@••.••• (David S. Bennahum) ... >The point is simple: we can now create child porn whithout children. All >child porn laws are predicated on the assumption that abuse occured at one >point: a child was forced to pose for the image. In a completely >artificial image, no child is used, totally undermining existing laws. >This raises the basic issue: are sexually explicit images of children going >to be illegal even when no child is used to make the image? If so, what >are the "slippery slope" implications for other kinds of totally >computer-rendered imagery? > >Suggestions on where to go with this, esp. artists creating these images? ********************************************************* Sandra Bernstein •••@••.••• http://www.inforamp.net/~sandrab/home.htm ********************************************************* ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by -- Andrew Oram -- •••@••.••• -- Cambridge, Mass., USA Moderator: CYBER-RIGHTS (CPSR) World Wide Web: http://jasper.ora.com/andyo/cyber-rights/cyber-rights.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~hwh6k/public/cyber-rights.html FTP: ftp://jasper.ora.com/pub/andyo/cyber-rights You are encouraged to forward and cross-post messages and online materials, pursuant to any contained copyright & redistribution restrictions. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
