Is the EARN IT Act a threat to hentai, manga, and anime?
1
It is a piece of bipartisan legislation here in the United States that is set to eventually have a vote in both the Senate and House at a later date. It's supposed goal is to crack down on child abuse material, but it is really about undermining encryption for law enforcement and curtailing free speech.
You can read the ACLU's response to the legislation here: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/2020-06-29_aclu_letter_earn_it_act_markup.pdf
And here is their response to the amended legislation: https://www.aclu.org/letter/aclu-letter-opposition-earn-it-act-managers-amendment
The original version of this legislation was given a low chance of passing, but I'm not sure about the amended version. I've read the whole thing and I think it might be dangerous to our shared hobby (it definitely is to free speech in general), but I'm just not sure. The fact that the entire Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the bill worries me quite a bit.
I don't think it is possible for anything I've ever seen Fakku post to be anything less than 100% constitutionally protected free speech, but it is worrying. What do you think?
You can read the ACLU's response to the legislation here: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/2020-06-29_aclu_letter_earn_it_act_markup.pdf
And here is their response to the amended legislation: https://www.aclu.org/letter/aclu-letter-opposition-earn-it-act-managers-amendment
The original version of this legislation was given a low chance of passing, but I'm not sure about the amended version. I've read the whole thing and I think it might be dangerous to our shared hobby (it definitely is to free speech in general), but I'm just not sure. The fact that the entire Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the bill worries me quite a bit.
I don't think it is possible for anything I've ever seen Fakku post to be anything less than 100% constitutionally protected free speech, but it is worrying. What do you think?
0
Depends on what they plan on targeting. Hentai of loli and teen characters isn't considered child porn in the usa last I checked (at least federally, states can set their own rules which makes this EARN IT shit worse) but using their "I'll know it when I see it" obscenity mentality they're lumping everything under "CSAM" (child sex abuse material).
Some alarming crap has happened recently with patreon banning porn creators over moe face because their belief is moe = underage even when its an adult, pornhub/xvideos/spankwire banning searches for loli (but not shota), amazon took down a few hatsune miku figurines and recently No Game No Life light novels and if you search loli or lolicon on google outside of sweden you get a report cp number and a bunch of other anti-loli shit.
I don't know if this is a preemptive move by the above because they know EARN IT is going to pass (but makes no sense since amazon hasn't taken down the other moe/loli stuff they sell or the porn streaming sites still allowing shota) or visa/mastercard flexing their moral bullshit towards fiction again.
I'm leaning towards the senate definitely passing it (because its republican controlled and they're on a kill-CDA-230 frenzy) unless Ron Wyden filibusters the crap and gets some dissenters. I don't trust the democrats either, it's just a matter of time until they pass it in the house.
Some alarming crap has happened recently with patreon banning porn creators over moe face because their belief is moe = underage even when its an adult, pornhub/xvideos/spankwire banning searches for loli (but not shota), amazon took down a few hatsune miku figurines and recently No Game No Life light novels and if you search loli or lolicon on google outside of sweden you get a report cp number and a bunch of other anti-loli shit.
I don't know if this is a preemptive move by the above because they know EARN IT is going to pass (but makes no sense since amazon hasn't taken down the other moe/loli stuff they sell or the porn streaming sites still allowing shota) or visa/mastercard flexing their moral bullshit towards fiction again.
I'm leaning towards the senate definitely passing it (because its republican controlled and they're on a kill-CDA-230 frenzy) unless Ron Wyden filibusters the crap and gets some dissenters. I don't trust the democrats either, it's just a matter of time until they pass it in the house.
1
I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think it is possible for states to pass laws banning things like hentai because of 1st Amendment protections any more than the federal government can. Funimation has uncensored ecchi with loli characters and they are based in Texas, a staunchly conservative state. I think it falls under the exception of art at both the state and federal level. What I'm worried about is that EARN IT will be used to scare publishers and platforms away from controversial art, or that Republicans might try and get the conservative Supreme Court to revisit the issue of porn and limit the scope of the 1st Amendment further.
I've noticed recently that Steam will blur out images that are potentially lewd as determined by Google or Amazon's technology. It is possible that Amazon has an automated take-down process for potentially problematic Kindle material, and that something has changed to cause stuff to get flagged. If an employee gets involved in the moderation process, he or she is probably told to err on the side of caution for legal purposes. I've heard elsewhere that this kind of thing happens routinely to individuals publishing niche stuff and that it isn't new.
Patreon has long disliked adult content on their website, so this recent push to crackdown on it is hardly surprising. I don't think this is related to EARN IT because Patreon has been anti-porn for so long.
Bills that emerge from committee don't have to be voted on, and they can also be amended or sent back to committee before being voted on. Powerful people from both parties have their own ideas about how to handle Section 230 and might like EARN IT for that reason. There is also the fact that EARN IT is a thinly disguised bill meant to expand policing coming on the heels of mass protests against law enforcement. Even more important, it could cause massive damage to the economy. If it ever gets passed in either half of Congress, I expect it will look VERY different than what we're dealing with now. Honestly, I'm not totally convinced most of the people on the committee want it passed. You can't vote no because of the subject matter, and working on it at all can be billed as a moral achievement for voters. They have their win already.
Maybe I'm being too optimistic?
I've noticed recently that Steam will blur out images that are potentially lewd as determined by Google or Amazon's technology. It is possible that Amazon has an automated take-down process for potentially problematic Kindle material, and that something has changed to cause stuff to get flagged. If an employee gets involved in the moderation process, he or she is probably told to err on the side of caution for legal purposes. I've heard elsewhere that this kind of thing happens routinely to individuals publishing niche stuff and that it isn't new.
Patreon has long disliked adult content on their website, so this recent push to crackdown on it is hardly surprising. I don't think this is related to EARN IT because Patreon has been anti-porn for so long.
Bills that emerge from committee don't have to be voted on, and they can also be amended or sent back to committee before being voted on. Powerful people from both parties have their own ideas about how to handle Section 230 and might like EARN IT for that reason. There is also the fact that EARN IT is a thinly disguised bill meant to expand policing coming on the heels of mass protests against law enforcement. Even more important, it could cause massive damage to the economy. If it ever gets passed in either half of Congress, I expect it will look VERY different than what we're dealing with now. Honestly, I'm not totally convinced most of the people on the committee want it passed. You can't vote no because of the subject matter, and working on it at all can be billed as a moral achievement for voters. They have their win already.
Maybe I'm being too optimistic?
2
It will eventually pass. If there's one guarantee with congress, it's that it will violate the constitution in order to unlawfully obtain more power. That's what happens with every government.
The sad thing though is that the government is really just a reflection of the regular people. It's the regular people who are fucking stupid enough to fall for this shit and think hentai = bad. Think of how stupid the average person is, then realize half the people are stupider than that.
Either way the only thing you can really do is protect yourself. Our job will be to exploit the loopholes in the law so we can continue our business.
The sad thing though is that the government is really just a reflection of the regular people. It's the regular people who are fucking stupid enough to fall for this shit and think hentai = bad. Think of how stupid the average person is, then realize half the people are stupider than that.
Either way the only thing you can really do is protect yourself. Our job will be to exploit the loopholes in the law so we can continue our business.
2
And earn it is back, still just as bad, a threat to privacy, encryption and if they start looking at anime then loli/shota (unfortunately there's more eyes on the "bad" content of anime/manga now than before).
It appears congress is trying to rush its passage so no one can't mount large opposition. Has a bill in both houses, markup in the senate coming Thursday (February 10th).
https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2022/02/earn-it-act-back-and-it%E2%80%99s-more-dangerous-ever
It appears congress is trying to rush its passage so no one can't mount large opposition. Has a bill in both houses, markup in the senate coming Thursday (February 10th).
https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2022/02/earn-it-act-back-and-it%E2%80%99s-more-dangerous-ever
2
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/key-senators-have-voted-anti-encryption-earn-it-act
It has passed yet another hurdle to becoming law, but at the expense of increased visibility. Aside from its sponsors, nobody has anything good to say about the bill, and its direct attack on encryption was made clear during the committee meeting.
It has passed yet another hurdle to becoming law, but at the expense of increased visibility. Aside from its sponsors, nobody has anything good to say about the bill, and its direct attack on encryption was made clear during the committee meeting.