Web Site Operator Charged With Obscenity

[Herman Munster]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/09/27/D8KDF2H00.html

A woman who authorities say ran a Web site that published graphic fictional tales about the torture and sexual abuse of children has been indicted on federal obscenity charges.
"Use of the Internet to distribute obscene stories like these not only violates federal law, but also emboldens sex offenders who would target children," U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said Wednesday in announcing the charges against Karen Fletcher, 54.

Excerpts of her stories were available to all visitors to her Web site, while others paid to read whole stories, prosecutors said.

Fletcher was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on six counts involving six stories about the kidnapping, torture, sexual molestation and murder of children 9 and under. The charges carry five years in prison each.

[cynatnite]

1. Since we don't know the context of the stories...

this is a hard one to call.

On the surface it sounds like she's being punished for fictional writing. It doesn't say she was glorifying those acts.

I read a lot of fiction on the internet and some stories are pretty graphic and involve children, but the context wasn't in any glorification or the sole reason they were written. They were crime drama stories.

:shrug:

[Tab]

2. Well, it is illegal

so :shrug:

[CBGLuthier]

5. putting one letter after another is now a criminal act

choosing the order of letters from our 26 choices I am able to commit a crime?

Seems rather sad to me that this is the state of affairs.

Thought cirme indeed.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Nope.

Fully protected by the first amendment.

[hughee99]

3. Watch out Law and Order: SVU. n/t

[sproutster]

4. Sooo... would they arrest the author of Lotita?

I realize how nasty the stories may be -- but it's only going on in the authors head.

[Scoot420fla]

6. agreed n/t

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

8. That shit scares me...

My site contains prose and peotry that some might find insulting. Nothing really sexual or advocating harm, but with strong words all the same.

If I offend Jerry Falwell?

[Xithras]

9. Since when is the printed word illegal?

Child porn is illegal for a good reason...it is the fruit of a crime. In order to make child porn, a child has to be sexually victimized. Making kiddie porn against the law is a natural way to combat that kind of abuse.

But these are STORIES. No actual children were harmed in their production, and no images were produced except in the minds of the readers. This is about banning a type of thought, and I oppose ANY kind of thoughtcrime laws. This may be sick stuff, but the government has no right to ban it.

And I'm speaking as someone who was molested as a child, so I DO understand why some might oppose these kinds of publications. While they may be vile, however, the entire point of free speech is to protect speech that is unpopular.

[hang a left]

10. I remember a repeat child molester was sent back to

prison for life for drawing sexually explicit pictures of children.