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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
A BC Canadian supreme court judge has ruled the *possession* of child porn may not be criminalized. This ruling does not apply to *sale* or *distribution*. If I recall US legal history properly, the US law banning mere possession of child porn (say, in a locked safe in your basement) was not upheld as constitutional until a decade ago. http://www.yahoo.ca/headlines/top_stories/n011588.html -Declan *********** Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 02:42:04 -0500 To: declan@well.com From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@well.com> > >THE PROVINCE >Sunday, January 17, 1999 > >Editorial > > >p. A38. > >Keeping kiddie porn may be disgusting, immoral but legal > >Vile? Yes. > >Disgusting? Immoral? That too. > >But criminal? > >No. > >It sickens us to think of 65-year-old deviants poring over magazines, discs >and tapes of naked children promoting their parts. > >But revolting though they are, we have to agree with the court's explosive >legal finding that under the Canadian constitution, slimes like John Sharpe >have the right to gawk. > >NOT to distribute, sell, film or re-enact kiddie porn; but a right to have >it in their home. > >Last week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Duncan Shaw rocked the country with a >ruling that a Criminal Code section stating it's illegal to possess any >child porn for any reason, is itself unlawful. > >Why? Because telling us what we can and can't watch or read in our homes is >a major invasion of our right to privacy and free expression. > >You think the judge and Province editors have lost it, right? > >But look at it this way: Murder, robbery, extortion and kidnapping are >criminal acts. > >But owning videos that depict people committing them, isn't. We're free to >look at all the gory movies and magazines we want. And thank goodness for >that. > >Imagine a world inwhich Big Government controlled the media, publishing >houses and airwaves. > >No one is stopping us from watching the watch'em suffer TV shows -- despite >groans from parents and psychiatrists who insist TV gore leads to real life >violence. > >In addressing the cause-and-effect debate, Shaw concluded: > >"Only assumption supports the proposition that materials that advocate or >counsel sexual crimes with children have the effect of increasing (their) >occurrence..." > >Shaw said perverts who prey on kids will do so whether or not there's porn >around. > >"There is no evidence which demonstrates any significant increase of danger >to children..." > >He went further: Some pedophiles may actually lay off the kids and use porn >to relieve pent-up sexual tension, he said. > >Other child porn possessors could be collectors who intend no harm, and yet >the total possession ban makes criminals of them, liable to up to five >years in prison. > >Shaw said while a total ban on possession for the purpose of sale or >distribution was another matter, and should not be allowed. Here, here. > >Phone or fax and tell us what you think. > > -------------------------------------------------------- > | /|_|\ $ HANDYMAN $ /|_|\ | > | \_ _/ (Andrew Sorfleet) \_ _/ | > | | | handyman@walnet.org | | | > | | | 3075 - 349 Georgia St.W | | | > | __| |__ Vancouver, BC __| |__ | > | / \_/ \ V6G 1H9 / \_/ \ | > | \__/ \__/ (604) 488-0710 \__/ \__/ | > -------------------------------------------------------- > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I speak the password primeval .... I give the sign of democracy ...." --Walt Whitman Mike Godwin can be reached by phone at 212-888-7811. His book, CYBER RIGHTS, can be ordered at http://www.panix.com/~mnemonic . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 12:07:33 +1100 To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> From: Roger Clarke <Roger.Clarke@anu.edu.au> Subject: Antoinette in Wonderland The Canberra Times, Saturday, 16 January 1999, p.3 (apparently unavailable in electronic form?!) Child Pornographer avoids jail stint Perth, no byline A Perth accountant who compiled more than 162,000 images of child pornography from the Internet on his home computer avoided a jail sentence yesterday. Accountant Stephen Allen Jones, 42, was sentenced in the Perth District Court to two years' jail, but the judge suspended the sentence. While denouncing the images as an "appalling perversion and degradation of young females which can only be described as evil", Judge Antoinette Kennedy said Jones had been punished through public humiliation and the loss of his career and reputation. "I have no doubt that unless you continue with your treatment you will lose the only thing you have left at the moment, your wife", she said. Jones, who retired from a senior partner's position in the accountancy firm Price Waterhouse Coopers when he was charged in September, pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing more than 162,000 images of child pornography. Police seized his computer, three hard drives and 11 CD-ROM discs from his north suburban Hillarys home during an international swoop on Internet child pornography in 12 countries, coordinated by British police. In a letter to the judge, Jones told of his remorse and the devastating impact his wife and two teenage daughters had suffered as a result of his crime. "I am almost intolerably remorseful because of the nature of the crime, which is so odious I can't believe I did it", he wrote. [Caveat: I'm not normally an Old Testament pro-retribution kind of person, but this report, which I'm taking on face value, has got my blood up] [If I was a policeman working hard on child pornography rings, I'd be worse than merely disheartened, and I'd be pressuring the Attorney-General to appeal against the lightness of the sentence] [If I were a working-class person, I'd be asking about social equity in sentencing] [If I were an ISP, I'd be wondering what all the fuss about criminal liability of ISPs has been about, if that's the maximum sentence that can be earned through conscious criminal activity over an extended period] [I'll readily admit to thorough contempt of court, where it's presided over by a judge that thick. The man retired as a senior partner of a major accountancy firm. Yes, he could have got richer; but he's already quite rich, thank you very much. "The only thing you have left at the moment, your wife" would be hilariously naive if the misapprehension hadn't been a material factor in a sentencing decision. Interpolating, it appears that the defendant may not have even appeared in court, and hence the judge couldn't test whether his breast-beating words were heartfelt or just a sensible thing to write in the circumstances; nor could she ensure that the humiliation included a dressing-down by a judge] Other material on the Wonderland Club raids of 3 Sep 98 includes: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,3441,2133996,00.html http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,4436,2134390,00.html http://interactive.cfra.com/1998/09/02/59060.html http://headlines.yahoo.com/granite/wlaj/feature2/19980902.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/washtech/daily/sept98/02/tech1.htm http://www.herald.com/world/digdocs/046657.htm http://www.dallasnews.com/national-nf/nat83.htm http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/wires2/1107/n_ap_1107_100. sml http://www.techserver.com/newsroom/ntn/info/102298/info12_26742_noframes.html ht tp://www.dtaylor.demon.co.uk/isps.htm Roger Clarke http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/ Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916 mailto:Roger.Clarke@xamax.com.au http://www.xamax.com.au/ Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA Information Sciences Building Room 211 Tel: +61 2 6249 3666 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe: send a message to majordomo@vorlon.mit.edu with this text: subscribe politech More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------