#obscenity law

[craycraybluejay]

Btw i do block anti para discoursers. If u believe in thought crime you're going to annoy the shit out of me if you're not just full on trying to harm people who aren't doing anything wrong. And I don't want someone like you around me. Also it feels like abuse apologia and false conflation of a thought or feeling with abuse. And that is cruel to victims of abuse.

only exception is if we're mutuals and you in good faith want to learn more about why the idea of thought crime is BAD NEWS. Oh yeah and it puts innocent people behind bars, and i don't mean for stuff like csem which actually is abuse. What I'm referring to is known as Obscenity Law in the US, barring the possession or distribution of ANY generally legal pornography if it "doesn't align with your community's values" and "is obscene/gross" and "has no artistic merit," all of which are extremely subjective and up to judges, juries, and lawyers. Don't panic though, furries and bdsm likers and lolicon havers. These things alone are not illegal, and you cannot be charged for obscenity law unless someone specifically goes through the effort to take you to court with an incredibly good lawyer. Basically, unless you think that someone who has legally obtained proof (e.g: not stolen, etc.), a lot of money, and a burning hate for you, and you live in a very conservative community, the chances you will ever have to deal with obscenity law are extremely low to none.

#pro para #obscenity law #us law #disclaimer that i am not a lawyer and simply heavily into law research of all kinds but cannot give legal advice as a lawyer #(yet) (might become a lawyer someday idk we'll see) #paraphile safe #thought crime #btw antis before you use the legality argument as a gotcha for the millionth time #your cute fluffy gay fanfic with no age difference can still apply under obscenity law #tw csem mention #also 'proship antipara' people are cringe as hell #if you can acknowledge that thinking about a character is not abuse you can acknowledge the same of thinking ab something real #cause thing is thinking about something does nothing to anyone #like right now im choosing to think about killing idk some guy walking his dog. the guy and the dog are fine and alive and well. #nothing happened or will happen #hope that helps

[rosethornewrites]

Given the current situation with the CEO and multiple people postulating that Tumblr will die within the next year or so, I’m wondering where the majority of fandom and queer discourse will go next.

It’s not like the latest incident is the first. It’s just the most recent, and these concerns have led to this conversation before.

Facebook is basically unusable because of the algorithm and turn toward advertising. Twitter/X isn’t queer-friendly. Dreamwidth might be an option but I don’t recall if they have a reshare option.

I’ve been online since before social media, when what we had was individual websites on platforms that no longer exist. I remember Y2K. I remember when MySpace, LiveJournal (and other blogging platforms) came to be. I remember the beginning of FFN. I remember when Internet 1.0 died.

I also remember each of those sites basically capitulating to puritans who wanted to censor and ban queer stuff (or anything they don't like). Strikethroughs. Moments when people's entire online existences disappeared.

I guess I'm not surprised that Tumblr will go that way when we've had so many waves of evangelical purging. It’s not like they’re doing anything about anti-queer rhetoric or bullying, or about death threats and active harassment by bad actors.

Free speech for all… unless you qualify as “obscene” material, and then you don’t get free speech nor do you receive protection. And we’re all seeing the current events of the push to actually classify the existence of trans/queer people as obscene.

Meet me in the middle, says the dishonorable entity.

#tumblr #tumblr issues #fandom #queer community #lgbtq+ #fandom purity culture #censorship #purity culture #obscenity law

[hannibal-against-guro]

Decided to "Enable Tipping" bc this isn't my personal blog, it's gonna be (mostly) PG-13 and 0% naughty pictures, y'know, the payment processor dictatorship interpretation of the First Amendment that reads "Don't do anything the NYPD would arrest Lenny Bruce for," and it redirects me to Stripe, anyway long story short, 10 minutes and 105% of my personal financial info later, I am legally a professional comedian (and on at least 5 more state, federal, and employer anti-union cartel watchlists)

Anyway, Gib mir Geld, viele bitte, because the people printing my paystubs are not giving me enough for what I do for them.

#only partially satire #humor #comedians #unionize #paymebt processor dictatorship #satire #politics #obscenity law

[turtletaubwrites]

I am unwell

#i need a doctor #this is smut #seriously #HANDS #just look at his fucking hands #it's obscene #the Bend Until You Break fic is still controlling my brain #turtletaub screencaps #trafalgar law #one piece screencaps #one piece #law one piece

[criticalrolo]

hey what if kestrel was really really smug about how much willow likes to sit in his lap

#you know that gif of jude law thats going around twitter that is lowkey Obscene. yeah #i actually drew this twice but one is for the Other twitter only lsjkdghkaskdfjl #kestrel #my art #kestrillow

[monstrousparalysis]

To my fellow fans with horrible memory:

Do you struggle with remembering whether or not something happened in canon? Do you get confused on if that conversation you remember was from an episode or just a really good fanfic you read? Are you tired of having to think about this every time you talk to your friends about the piece of art driving you crazy?

Well, struggle no longer! May I suggest to you the foolproof, genius strategy which I like to call:

Literally read only the most fucked up fanfiction you can find in every fandom!

Now, instead of having to ask yourself, "Did that fight happen in the series?" and only finding the answer of "I don't know", you will ask yourself "Did that really hardcore graphic rape scene happen in the series?", and you can rest assured that your answer will be a resounding "No the fuck it didn't, dumbass!"

I've been utilizing this strategy for years, and it's worked wonders! Me and my friends can all effortlessly remember what happened in our favorite show and what was just our ideas, because all of our ideas involve things that couldn't be included in a mainstream media format without funding being cut!

And remember: when you utilize this strategy, make sure to send some love to the creatives behind these masterpieces in thanks for your increased powers of memory! They deserve it!

Signed, a queer with ADHD and an AO3 history that violates local obscenity laws!

#rem's ramblings #proship #profic #for legal reasons this is a shitpost and i am not breaking any laws #despite obscene as a word functionally meaning nothing and being a horrible metric to place criminal charges on #:]

[panncakes]

the reason it takes me twice as long to watch an episode of loa is bc i never know which direction they are going in and i have to pause the episode to take a lap when something like this happens

#laws of attraction #laws of attraction the series #they do the most obscene romantic shit and i have to pause and then they do shit like this and i have to pause

[gwydionmisha]

#Abortion Access #Abortion Ban #Reproductive Rights #Anti-obscenity Law #Comstock Laws #News

[kerryweaverlesbian]

84% on my essay 😎 fucking BALLER. Also 80% on my author contract review 😎 and 82% on my previous essay and assignment 😎 and I KNOW my just handed in stuff is golden.

Sometimes working hard on stuff. Makes them good.

#if anyone wants to know about a) easy read fiction publishing b) one particular REALLY COOL irish indie publishing house #c) how the Obscenity Act and current Obscenity Laws have been used for censorship #hit me up and I can send you an essay lol #and if you d) want me to write a letter suggesting baseline edits to a piece of text. pay me as a freelancer. #i am proud!!! of myself!!!! #80% and above is a distinction. jsyk. ;)

[mikelogan]

Mike Logan in Law & Order 1x14 “The Violence of Summer”

#law & order #law and order #mygif #logif #law & order 1x14 #mike logan #chris noth #lawandorderedit #userdundun #crimeshowsource #HE IS SO OBSCENELY CUTE HERE #THAT'S AN ACTUAL BABY PUPPY #and the tippy taps 😭

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Urges Censorship On Indecent News Coming To Canada,” Ottawa Citizen. February 20, 1933. Page 4. --- Canadian Press President Favors OttawaDepartment to Curb Trouble, Tells of Speedy News Gathering --- Canadian Press Despatch. MONTREAL. Feb. 20 - A department of censorship at Ottawa to put its down on the wanton, planned and cunningly cultivated indecency offered for sale in printed word and picture by certain newspaper groups that have the entry to Canada was advocated today by M E. Nichols. president cf the Canadian Press in an address before the Canadian Club here to-day..

"Some day,” he said, "I sinccerelv hope we may have in Ottawa a government wise enough and bold enough to set up a department of censorship. The censorship I have in mind would not seek to regulate he printed word or the spoken word of wild men or wild women. It would have no concern in the .saving or doings of political agitators. It would be a censorship for reasonable cleanliness, nothing more.

Mr. Nichols, vice-president and managing director of the Winnipeg Tribune took as his subject the mechanics of newsgathering in Canada. He sketched briefly the birth and growth of co-operative news-gathering as represented in the Canadian Press today, with its network of leased wires from Cape Breton to Victoria. Cast of this ran to nearly a million dollars a year and was borne in a mutual basis entirely by the daily newspapers of Canada. 

“The Canadian Press," he went on, “offers each member a basic news service, complete In every department. including world news, the domestic news of Canada, financial and sporting news and political news, covering parliament and the various provincial legislatures. Nothing can happen in the civilzed world that does not come within its orbit. But it must be news, not opinions. 

"Take for instance the proceedings of parliament at Ottawa, where the Canadian Press maintains a parliamentary bureau with, a large reportorial staff. This bureau reports the proceedings often at considerable length, varying according to their news vallue and these reports are distributed by leased wires of the association from coast to coast. Obviously where papers of every political stripes are served the reports must be scrupulously impartial and non-partisan." Speed and Accuracy.  Speed and accuracy were the essence of a successful newspaper service, and the speaker gave some examples, for Instance the result of last, year’s Derby, laid down in Montreal and flashed across Canada less than 30 seconds after the winner had passed the post.. This speed was made possible by introduction of the British Creed automatic telegraph printer an invention, by the way of a Haligonian.

‘These instruments of speedy transmission,’ he went on, ‘carry to men engaged in the making of daily newspapers a burning significance. With the commencement of each day newspapermen look out upon the wide world as the field of their operations. A news occurrence in any corner of the civilized world, they can summon for almost instantaneous production in the modern newspaper office.

‘One other thing about the Canadian Press, and a thing that enhances our pride in it. The newspaper services of the Canadian press are clean. Of course, they reflect as they must reflect the life of their day and generation. They cannot altogether ignore the indecencies of social life, but they do not exploit them. They do not commercialize them. They do not go digging for them. They draw the kindly veil wherever it can be drawn. The press of Canada, taking it all in all, is the cleanest press to be found anywhere in the world.

Carloads of Pollution "I wish I could say as much for some of the newspapers of alien origin that find their way into this country, especially some alien Sunday newpapers. All of them are not objectionable. There are some notable exceptions but those that are bad are very bad. And do you know they come into this country by the carload every week. They come into this country to pollute the wholesome stream of our Canadian life especially our Canadian life. l am not speaking the language of the prude or the purist. I am speaking what I believe to be the language of robust red-blood Canadianism, the language of the average Canadian parent and the language cf the average Canadian home.” 

Discussing the field of newspaper mechanics, Mr. Nichols said in conclusion: 'I think I am stating a universal newspaper practice when I tell you there are "no yesterdays in the newspaper business. It is no special discovery of ours. I suggest no prodigy of newspaper wisdom. I must definitely disclaim any such pretensions. If there are ‘no yesterdays' in the making of a daily newspaper, it is because of the nature of the newspaper business.

 "A newspaper daily is made in a few hours. No sooner does the curtain descend on one act, than it begins to rise another .So we have no time to look back to yesterday’s yesterday, or to any others yesterday. We are conscious of the fact that a new day is rushing upon us; that at that very moment the great restless world is in action; that great events are in the making: that in a few hours or even in a few minutes these events may be thundering upon us. We have to be ready for them when we have put out a dull paper the day before and are seized with the determination, as all good newspapermen are, that we will not be a dull paper tomorrow." 

The speaker was introduced briefly by J. E. McPherson, president of the Canadian Club of Montreal.

#montreal #canadian club #winnipeg #canadian press #canadian newspapers #censorship #government censorship #indecent literature #suppression of free speech #capitalism in canada #obscenity law #obscene publications #crime magazines #great depression in canada #middle class reformers #child savers #middle class ideology

[shinobicyrus]

So you know how we have this thing called the First Amendment in America, right? Well, as it turns out, things that are legally labelled as “obscene” don’t get Freedom of Speech protections. Republican Senator Lee of Utah bemoans that the current rules for obscenity (set in by Communications Act of 1934) makes so-called obscene material too difficult to define, “let alone prosecute.” Thus, Senator Lee has proposed the ‘Interstate Obscenity Definition Act’, which would change the law so that, legally, something can be considered ‘Obscene’ if the work in question:

Is taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion;

depicts, describes or represents actual or simulated sexual acts with the objective intent to arouse, titillate, or gratify the sexual desires of a person;

and taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Its also wants to broaden the law by “removing the ‘intent’ requirement that only prohibits the transmission of obscenity for the purposes abusing, threatening, or harassing a person.”

Now, while most articles are going the route of “ZOMG a United States Senator is trying to ban porn!” (although the collapse of the professional porn industry is a consequence I doubt Senator Lee would mind), the Right’s recent anti-LGBTQ moral panics and book bans as of late make me far more suspicious of the motives of this bill and its more far-reaching implications.

As everything from queer books to drag performances are consistently painted by Conservatives as “obscene” and “pornographic,” there is little doubt in my mind that Lee intends to use this bill as a vehicle to further prosecute an agenda of Censorship by making the very definition of obscenity broad enough to label whatever homophobes and transphobes find objectionable (ie, anything queer) as legally obscene. Thus allowing them to strip them of First Amendment protections and opening them up for widespread bans.

Considering Mike Lee was also one of the 36 Senators to vote against the recent passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, I don’t think my suspicions are unfounded.

#Senator Mike Lee #Obscenity #Censorship #Homophobia #Queerphobia #the fact that in all my research I have seen no one else make this connection #I feel slightly unhinged - but the pattern is there! #all the recent #Book Bans #against mostly LGBTQ books #the constant accusation of anything queer being ''pornographic'' and ''obscene'' #this bill aligns with those trends in a way that is more subdued #I have no idea if such a bill even has a chance of passage #but with the House very soon coming under Republican leadership #and America's general puritanical feelings about sex in general #I don't feel we can write this off as 'not gonna happen' #and even if *this* one doesn't pass in Congress #other laws that want to change the definition of 'obscenity' to fit their agenda #can't be far behind #at the end of the day #the only way for conservatives to win is to change the rules of the game #like a fucking shifty little sith lord #the question isn't ''is this legal?'' #the question is ''can I *make* this legal?''

[sunfoxfic]

one thing I'm always flabbergasted by as an American is how normal it is in other countries to limit what you're allowed to name a child. Not necessarily in a judgemental way (though there are things I'm a little bit judgy about, namely that the restrictions often are gendered and may impede people's ability to give their children names from other cultures), but like, also, if I want to name my child McFlurry why can't I?

#this example makes me sound incredibly american and i own that #who are you to stop me from naming a child mcflurry #states do have laws on the subject but generally they're pretty lax #there are some that are too lax about obscenity/slurs and that's definitely a problem from the other direction #but in general i don't understand why mcflurry isn't a valid name in all countries

[aiiaiiiyo]

#George Carlin being arrested for violating obscenity laws #1972. #oleksandr1981 #oldschool

[hometownrockstar]

saw a few posts recently that use the descriptor "masturbatory" to belittle the themes or presentation of a (hypothetical) piece of media, and its reminding me about this convo i had a while ago about the artistic merits of smut/porn/erotica. First off, erotica is seen as different from smut and porn, by virtue of having something other than those things. Meaning, artistic merit, whatever else, it's seen as elevating it up to a position of arthood that porn is not allowed. But what is the tangible difference between porn and art, that makes porn incapable of being art?

It can be made in the same mediums as any other art, drawings movies books, it can have a story and actors (and not all movies have these either), it can be visually and explicitly interesting or repulsive in a manner to illicit emotions out of the viewer. and that is the baseline lots of people point to art having: eliciting emotions out of the viewer. But with any other term one could use to describe a story, depressing uplifting introspective, why are "masturbatory" and "titillating" not mere descriptors as well, but rather condemnations? "There is nothing more to this film other than it's intention being depressing" would be a silly thing to say as being the entirety of why a tragedy is bad or not art, for example. but also, funnily enough, if you said "miseryporn" instead of "depressing," many people would agree with the claim.

#also to think about: the existence of obscenity laws which try to differentiate between ''porn'' and ''art''

[jewdog]

The fact that the USA is functionally impossible to escape if you're not upper middle class is honestly dystopian

#ive been thinking a lot about moving to another country #gf is open to the idea but still very unsure about being in a new place so far from family and friends #but even if we were both 100% all in #the cost of 2 adult plane tickets #just one way. not including anything else like a place to stay. food. transport. etc #just 2 plane tickets. is more than an entire months rent #to ANY of our countries of choice #and sure pretty much all of the countries we would choose have better minimum wage and QOL laws #but trying to get a visa? good fucking luck #also trying to take into consideration like #local civil rights #for ourselves (gay. trans. jewish. pagan. etc) #but also how they treat their local bipoc #how they treat the homeless and impoverished #cost of living and more #like iceland was NUMBER ONE on our list until we found out how aggressively White they are #like worse than the us and canada combined White #and so obscenely expensive #“gay utopia!” sure #for the rich #right now the only one im still really considering is amsterdam #i know its not Great but its the best out of the ones we've considered #still much more diverse #and even though its expensive they do have MUCH better minimum wage laws #but uh. thatz all assuming we can ever even escape here