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All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder cuss like there's no tomorrow
Famous comic creators DC Comics has had to ask stores across the US to destroy all copies of a new Batman comic after a printing error meant there 'a slew of obscentitis' weren't properly censored.
Apparently, the comic's text was supposed to be blacked out, but because 2 different shades of black were used, the F, S & C- words could all clearly be read.
Some examples:
"Text every friend you've got, s- - -heads,"
"Sell your poison somewhere else. This here arcade belongs to the f- - -ing Batgirl."
It seems a bit silly to actually run the risk of this, surely they could just account for the word and instead of printing it just leave a space. Still, I bet there's some excited comic book geeks somewhere lusting over that their issue has now been recalled, and it's got swear words in it. Famous comic creators DC Comics has had to ask stores across the US to destroy all copies of a new Batman comic after a printing error... more -
ACLU, DGA, AFTRA gang up on FCC
The American Civil Liberties Union, flanked by unions representing directors and actors, told the Supreme Court the Federal Communications Commission has no business regulating any speech short of outright obscenity.
The ACLU -- joined by the Directors Guild of America, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and several others -- asked the Supreme Court to rethink the FCC's entire indecency-enforcement regime, saying, "No agency should be given such power under the constitution."
The court is currently hearing the FCC's challenge to a lower-court ruling overturning the FCC's decision to find Fox TV stations in violation of indecency rules for airing swearing on a Billboard Awards show.
ACLU et al said the court must go beyond a narrow ruling on whether or not the FCC violated the Administrative Procedures Act by not giving broadcasters sufficient notice of its decision to start finding fleeting profanities indecent.
Instead, they said, the court "cannot avoid the constitutional issues that are at the heart of this case." And if it does not avoid those issues, the petitioners said, "The entire indecency regime, in light of 30 years’ experience, can no longer be justified by any constitutionally permissible construction of the statute.”
The groups continued, “Technological developments since Pacifica [the Supreme Court decision upholding the FCC's indecency authority] indicate that the rationale for censorship of nonobscene broadcasting has lost whatever persuasive force it once may have had. Given cable television, the Internet and other electronic media today, broadcasting is no longer 'uniquely pervasive' and ‘uniquely accessible to children.’"
They also argued that the discretion over what content is or isn't indecent inherent in the FCC's indecency-enforcement regime is "unconstitutional censorship."
But the unions stopped short of challenging the spectrum-scarcity rationale that underpins broader regulation of broadcasting. "Whatever one thinks of the scarcity rationale in the modern media world, there is surely a difference between structural rules designed to promote more speech" -- like those that prevented networks from dictating programming to affiliates -- "and censorship rules based on broad, shifting and culturally driven criteria such as 'patent offensiveness,'” they argued. The American Civil Liberties Union, flanked by unions representing directors and actors, told the Supreme Court the Federal Communicat... more -
Porn got you in trouble with the law? Google will fix it
American lawyers could use Google Trends technology to defend porn charges, the New Statesman reports.
Google Trends data can be used to pinpoint the specific search preferences of people within a geographical area, in order to demonstrate that people are already searching for explicit material online. The theory is, the more common you can make a population's sexual preferences seem to a jury, the less outrageous the defendant in court on obscenity charges will seem, against the already pretty sex-crazy 'community standards' in his or her region. And evidence that a community is already actively consuming so-called obscene material will make a jury an awful lot more forgiving, apparently.
In a specific case in Pensacola, six seemingly random search terms were compared - three sexual in nature, and three more innocuous. Google Trends results showed that the word 'orgy' was more popular than 'ethanol', 'apple pie' or 'boating'. (Orgy more popular than apple pie? Where are your priorities, people!?)
Google Trends as a defence against 'obscenity': a cunning stunt? Or just downright dirty? American lawyers could use Google Trends technology to defend porn charges, the New Statesman reports. ... more -
Students get higher marks for writing 'F*ck off' on exams
Write ‘f*ck off’ on a GCSE paper and you’ll get 7.5%. Add an exclamation mark and it’ll go up to 11%.
One pupil who wrote 'f*ck off' was given marks for accurate spelling and conveying a meaning successfully.
His paper was marked by Peter Buckroyd, a chief examiner who has instructed fellow examiners to mark in the same way. He told trainee examiners recently to adhere strictly to the mark scheme, to the extent that pupils who wrote only expletives on their papers should be awarded points.
Hey, if you know how to spell 'f*ck off' and use it correctly in a sentence, you might as well use it to your advantage, right? Write ‘f*ck off’ on a GCSE paper and you’ll get 7.5%. Add an exclamation mark and it’ll go up to 11%. ... more -
Should popularity of orgies vs. apple pie adjust community standards?
This is an interesting story involving pornography, community standards, and Google Trends data. Basically, a defense attorney who has attempted to use proliferation and availability of pornographic material on the Internet in contrast to more broadly decent content is switching the focus instead to "intent" on a local level using Google search trend data.
Here's a snippet:
"In the trial of a pornographic Web site operator, the defense plans to show that residents of Pensacola are more likely to use Google to search for terms like “orgy” than for “apple pie” or “watermelon.” The publicly accessible data is vague in that it does not specify how many people are searching for the terms, just their relative popularity over time. But the defense lawyer, Lawrence Walters, is arguing that the evidence is sufficient to demonstrate that interest in the sexual subjects exceeds that of more mainstream topics — and that by extension, the sexual material distributed by his client is not outside the norm.
It is not clear that the approach will succeed. The Florida state prosecutor in the case, which is scheduled for trial July 1, said the search data may not be relevant because the volume of Internet searches is not necessarily an indication of, or proxy for, a community’s values.
But the tactic is another example of the value of data collected by Internet companies like Google, both from a commercial standpoint and as a window into the thoughts, interests and desires of their users.
“Time and time again you’ll have jurors sitting on a jury panel who will condemn material that they routinely consume in private,” said Mr. Walters, the defense lawyer. Using the Internet data, “we can show how people really think and feel and act in their own homes, which, parenthetically, is where this material was intended to be viewed,” he added."
So, by focusing on Pensacola search trend data, Walters is suggesting that residents in Pensacola are at least as interested in "orgies" as they are in the term "apple pie." It's noted that "Nascar," "Nintendo," and "surfing" all ranked higher than "orgy."
However, this raises all sorts of concerns regarding Internet privacy, specifically in regards to the group of people who reside in Pensacola and happen to use Google to search for race cars, video games, and your run-of-the-mill orgy.
So, what say you Current? Should the laws regarding obscenity be adjusted based on the personal likes and dislikes of the local community? Or is using data to discern local interest a violation of privacy?
Graph image found at: http://www.reason.com/blog/show/127164.html This is an interesting story involving pornography, community standards, and Google Trends data. Basically, a defense attorney who has... more -
Contortionist Sex
This is one of the things Conor talks about in this week's roundup of the week in media. Also, a dangerous epidemic and terrorist fist jabbing. This is one of the things Conor talks about in this week's roundup of the week in media. Also, a dangerous epidemic and terrorist... more
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Judge posted nude pictures on his website
Alex Kozinski, who is presiding over an obscenity trial in L.A., admits he posted sexually explicit photos and videos. He says he didn't think the public could see the site, which is now blocked.
An obscenity trial in Los Angeles federal court was suspended today after LA Times reported that the judge presiding over the case has maintained his own publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos.
Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledged that he had posted the materials, which included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal. Some of the material was inappropriate, he conceded, although he defended other sexually explicit content as "funny."
Kozinski said that he thought the site was for his private storage and that he was not aware the images could be seen by the public, although he also said he had shared some material on the site with friends. Alex Kozinski, who is presiding over an obscenity trial in L.A., admits he posted sexually explicit photos and videos. He says he didn... more -
You say Tomato; I say tomatoe, you say potato; I say F**K!
Enjoy swearing? So do celebrities! Check out this hysterical video of some famous faces expressing what their favorite swear word is on camera.
WARNING: This OBVIOUSLY contains graphic language so if you are going to be offended, don't watch! Thanks! ;-) Enjoy swearing? So do celebrities! Check out this hysterical video of some famous faces expressing what their favorite swear word is... more -
When did it go so tits up?
"Facebook, the social networking website with over 39 million users, has started removing breastfeeding photographs posted by its users. Why? Apparently they contravene its obscenity policy." "Facebook, the social networking website with over 39 million users, has started removing breastfeeding photographs posted by its... more
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Obscenity
