Thursday, December 11, 2008

Tasteless animation of Simpsons cartoon characters having sex is ruled "child pornography":
Judge Michael Adams decided that it could, and found a man from Sydney guilty of possessing child pornography on his computer.

The defence had argued that the fictional, animated characters were not real people, and clearly departed from the human form.

They therefore contested that the conviction for the possession of child pornography should be overturned.

Justice Michael Adams said the purpose of anti-child pornography legislation was to stop sexual exploitation and child abuse where images of "real" children were depicted.

But in a landmark ruling he decided that the mere fact that they were not realistic representations of human beings did not mean that they could not be considered people.
This is in Australia, not the US. But sooner or later, a similar question will arise in the US. I just hope American judges don't make a similarly foolish ruling. (Via Transterrestrial Musings.)