Extreme Pornography News

The Scottish government has declared its intention to ban the possession of violent porn. It extends on the law already passed for the rest of the UK by including non-consensual sex and rape (both violent and non-violent). 

POSSESSION OF EXTREME PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL

The Scottish Executive issued a joint consultation in 2005 with the Home Office on issues relating to the possession of extreme pornography. This consultation ran until December 2005 and 93 Scottish responses were received.

We have decided to introduce a new offence for the possession of extreme pornographic material. We propose that this offence will criminalise the possession of pornographic images which realistically depict:

• Life-threatening acts and violence that would appear likely to cause severe injury
• Rape and other non- consensual penetrative sexual activity, whether violent or otherwise
• Bestiality or necrophilia.

The maximum penalty for the proposed new offence will be 3 years imprisonment.

We intend that the new offence will be similar to that at section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which will apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish offence will go further than that offence, however, in that it will cover all images of rape and non-consensual penetrative sexual activity, whereas the English offence only covers violent rape.

Under section 51 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, it is already illegal to publish, sell or distribute or to possess with a view to selling or distributing the material that would be covered by this new offence. We propose to increase the maximum penalty under section 51 of the 1982 Act in respect of extreme pornographic material from 3 to 5 years.

BENEFIT OF MAKING THE PROPOSED CHANGE

Will help ensure society is protected from exposure to pornography that depicts horrific images of violence.

As you might have gathered elsewhere, Consenting Adult Action Network (CAAN) opposes NuLabour idiocy when it comes to Sex and Sexuality.

Legislation on Extreme Porn is just bad law, badly written and, we believe, likely to fall into disrepute very quickly – but maybe not before ruining a couple of dozen lives along the way.

Another new law - on Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups - is also going to cause enormous harm, because it bars people from working on the basis of their private and perfectly legal sexual fantasies.

In the meantime, we are hearing more and more from people who are beginning to be very afraid, simply because of their own sexuality.

But what do we believe in? We think the following is about as straightforward as it gets – and if you agree with us, let us know. Signing up doesn't mean you buy into every last detail of CAAN's campaigning actions: it does mean you are joining together with a growing body of people who are sick and tired of the Nanny State bullying its way into their bedroom.

Sign if you're kinky. Sign, too, if you're not.

This is about basic human rights – not your personal sexuality.

If you'd like to support this simple notion, please e-mail us on info@caan.org.uk

Please provide your real name (and organisation if applicable) and we do need a valid e-mail address for confirmation purposes.

Oh – and if you can help us campaign, please let us know what you are willing to do. Blowing up the Houses of Parliament is not on the agenda.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We believe in the right of consenting adults to make their own sexual choices, in respect of what they do, see and enjoy alone or with other consenting adults, unhindered and unfettered by government

We believe that it is not the business of government to intrude into the sex lives of consenting adults.

Update: New Address

13th September 2008

CAAN have now established an easier to remember internet address:

Website: www.caan.org.uk
Email:  info@caan.org.uk

Bad artists of Britain, beware. Jack Straw's Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 seems to be creating a lot of unintentional collateral damage out in the tackier fringes of the art world. The act outlaws "extreme pornography" in which a woman or man's life appears to be in danger, as presented for the titillation of the viewer. As such, it also unwittingly includes much art and fashion photography, music video imagery and any other image in which a person (usually, in reality, a woman) is made the object of mortal threat. So it seems that we will no longer get to see any marvellous hipster pics of objectified female meat in danger. What a loss for the world of culture.

See article from guardian.co.uk

Update: Good Riddance

Thanks to Alan who points out an excellent counter blog to Bidisha's vindictiveness:

See Good Riddance to Bad Pseudo-Feminism from rohrstockpalast.blogspot.com

Bidisha is a novelist and a frequent contributor to he Guardian and the Observer. I enjoy her angry, hyperbolic columns a lot. They are a flashback to dogmatic 1970's style feminism, but written with all the vitriol and the fanaticism of youth. I think society needs people like Bidisha. For entertainment value, and to kick dumb, disrespectful, chauvinistic males in the face until they squeal like the craven pigs they are. There are still way too many of those leering neanderthals around, and they annoy me almost as much as they do women.

Unfortunately, Bidisha on her part doesn't think that society needs people like me - kinky people, that is, who are into corporal punishment and BDSM. Never mind that it's between consenting adults, never mind that roles in BDSM aren't really fixed to gender, but to personal preference. I can claim all I want that I respect women. In her eyes, being a CP fetishist makes me a dumb, chauvinistic pig myself, someone who propagates exploitation and abuse. No different from a sexist creep who harasses female colleagues in the workplace, really. And what about the women in our community? Well, they are nutcases who have conveniently internalised male oppression and misogyny. See, I told you, Bidisha is a lot of fun. And the frightening thing is, she's dead serious.

...Read the full article Good Riddance to Bad Pseudo-Feminism

Ben Westwood, the photographer son of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, is not happy with Jacqui Smith. Why?

He believes that a book he has compiled, provocatively titled Fuck Fashion , is going to fall foul of the Home Secretary's impending Criminal Justice and Immigration Act which outlaws anything which might be considered as "extreme pornography", of which there is plenty in young Ben's book.

The law comes into force in the New Year effectively making illegal any image that portrays a man or woman's life as being in danger in a sexual sense. According to the Independent, Westwood has been informed that, as a result of the ruling, his book, which deals with 'porno-chic' and bondage, will be banned from sale from January. Furthermore, anyone owning a copy of the tome could theoretically receive a three-year jail sentence.

Says Westwood: Jack Straw and the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith need to be bound up together and gagged. They are trying to dismantle our basic human rights. We cannot just sit here and take this. We cannot just lie back and watch this ludicrous Act slip in the back door.

Westwood is not going down without a fight. According to his agent, Lois Hillgrove, he has enlisted a number of the new great and the good, including the singer Gwen Stefani and the burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese, to help him do battle with the Home Office.

A delegation people involved in the Consenting Adult Action Network (CAAN), will be taking their extreme pornography advice seeking to ACPO, the Association of Chief Police Officers, today in London.

CAAN will be demanding that a collection of evidence consisting of hundreds of kinky porn images is scrutinised by ACPO.

CAAN want to know which images people can be arrested for owning in four months time when the CJIA takes effect, when millions of people will be able to get 3 years in jail for owning a consensually made image that they may not realise is illegal.

CAAN are asserting that if those who outline the police's powers cannot answer their questions, they have no business commencing the criminalisation of the consenting adults who make and view kinky erotica.

Friday 22nd August 2008
12:00 in London

Westminster Abbey public entrance, by the coffee stall outside.
Deans Yard
Westminster
London
Nearest tube St James Park or Westminster.
Bring a red rose so we can find each other.

For more information and to join in with actions, either on the streets or from what's left of the privacy of your own home, please contact c-a-a-n@live.co.uk or visit our webpage at http://consentingadultactionnet.spaces.live.com

Fight The Extreme Porn Ban!

Despite lack of evidence, the government claim banning violent porn will reduce sex crime. Study after study proves the beneficial influence of porn on society. On May 8th 2008, the government passed legislation criminalising the personal possession of 'extreme' and 'disgusting' pornography. Provisions 64 to 67 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 come into effect in January 2009. Convictions will carry up to 3 years jail sentence and inclusion on the Sex Offender Register, even if the pictures are of your partner. Just because the police think the pictures are extreme.

On 7th May protests were held in London at the British Library and Houses of Parliament. On 14th June we went to West Midlands police and asked them to look at our collection of extreme pornographic evidence people need advice about. They can't advise us so we're back on the trail and our collection is growing fast.

Fight Unjust Laws and Lies

To get our rights back and turn the tide of puritanical laws, which create harmless criminals and victimless crimes, we need to put our energies and skills together. CAAN is against all insidious and unjust laws which cause wider discrimination and criminalisation of adults who engage in informed consensual relationships with other adults.

What does extreme mean?

Despite concessions from the government concerning some images of legal activities in which the owner can be proved to feature, this law will still make criminal fantasy images involving consensual acts between adults – whether or not the act was staged: for example 'realistic' pictures that look like acts which threaten life such as strangulation or serious harm to breasts, anus or genitals. Lobby group www.backlash-uk.org.uk, an umbrella group of organisations, has been opposing this law since its inception. Now we also need to act on our own behalf.

We need advice.

Many of us need advice about whether books and images we own are illegal, or not, to stand a chance of not falling foul of this extreme law. We need to show how ridiculous and unfair this law is and try to interrupt its commencement.

Let's go and get it!

Send your images to us and we will put them in our collection and give them a unique evidence number so you can track their progress in our reports. If we go together to get advice about images we own there's safety in numbers and we can share the information we get with each other and the wider public. The Ministry of Justice says it will give us more guidance about what is illegal closer to the date but we need to ready ourselves now.

Dark Angel warns horror fans about the impact of the Government's noxious Dangerous Pictures Act.

The new law is passed in the Criminal Injustice & Immigration Act 2008 and is expected to come into force in January 2009.

SurfRecon Inc have announced the release of SurfRecon 2008, a new rapid-image-analysis tool that is available to law enforcement, parents, business owners, and schools for the first time.

This highly-mobile tool was originally created to enable members of law enforcement to quickly find, categorize, report-on, and delete pornographic content from almost any computer system, including many devices or media that can be mounted to the computer system.

SurfRecon is currently being used by police, adult probation and parole officers, and federal agents worldwide. I was excited to finally have a tool I could use to quickly search computers in the homes of my probationers, said said Cole Christensen, Adult Probation and Parole Officer, Utah State Department of Corrections, And guess what? The first time I used it, I found pornographic content. Images I wouldn't have found normally.

And now the same technology is available to parents, community leaders, and business owners.

The SurfRecon application comes pre-installed on a thumb drive. Furthermore, the application is cross-platform compatible, capable of scanning almost any Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computer system--and many devices or media that can be attached to the computer, such as recordable DVDs and CDs, iPods, cell phones, thumb drives, external hard drives, etc.

Different from a filter or firewall, SurfRecon actively searches for pornographic content, leveraging a database containing millions of hash values or digital fingerprints. With nearly 100 million image hashes in the database and with another 4 million added per week, if a computer contains pornography, SurfRecon will find it, said Andrew Brandt, SurfRecon Director of Business Development.

Each hash value in the database is the equivalent of a digital fingerprint, which uniquely identifies an image. SurfRecon uses "digital fingerprints" to determine the exact nature of any image that it discovers on a computer system. It can then pre-categorize the images, making it easier for individuals to view the contents of a computer system.