20 years for loli manga: 'victims don't have to exist'

A federal appeals panel has upheld the 20 year sentence of a lolicon found to have received illustrations of underage sex by email, saying that "it is not a required that the minor depicted actually exists", and so ruling art not to be universally protected free speech. The court also insisted that purely textual email containing incest related material was not constitutionally protected free speech, and so also upheld his conviction on these grounds. The man concerned (55), a resident of Richmond, Virginia, is serving a 20 year sentence after being convicted in 2005 of "receiving 20 Japanese cartoons, called anime, illustrating young girls being forced to have sex with men", which he rather unwisely received using a public computer at the Virginia Employment Commission.

source: Article < 20 Years for Loli Manga: "Victims Don't Have to Exist" > by 'Artefact'; www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/01/07/20-years-for-loli-manga-%25E2%2580%259Cvictims-don%25E2%2580%2599t-have-to-exist%25E2%2580%259D; Sankaku Complex; 7 January 2009