The facts of the case involve an American citizen, computer programmer, and comic book enthusiast in his mid-twenties who was flying from his home in the United States to Canada to visit a friend.  Upon arrival at Canadian Customs a customs officer conducted a search of the American and his personal belongings, including his laptop, iPad, and iPhone. The customs officer discovered manga on the laptop and considered it to be child pornography.  The client’s name is being withheld on the request of counsel for reasons relating to legal strategy.

The images at issue are all comics in the manga style.  No photographic evidence of criminal behavior is at issue.  Nevertheless, a warrant was issued and the laptop was turned over to police.  Consequently, the American has been charged with both the possession of child pornography as well as its importation into Canada. As a result, if convicted at trial, the American faces a minimum of one year in prison. This case could have far reaching implications for comic books and manga in North America.

http://cbldf.org/homepage/cbldf-forms-coalition-to-defend-american-comics-reader-facing-criminal-charges-in-canada/

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teeheeee..... *deletes all anime from his laptop*

An update on the content:

Charles Brownstein, executive director of the CBLDF, said that the materials that led to the arrest of the man, whose identity is being withheld both as a matter of legal strategy and to protect his privacy, were comics, not photographs. “My understanding with regard to the material at issue is that it includes fantasy comics drawn in a variety of manga styles,” he said in an e-mail to Comic Book Resources. “One of the items is believed to be a doujinshi, or fan-made comic, of the mainstream manga series Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Another is believed to be a comic in the original Japanese, depicting stick figure-like figures in various sexual positions. In all cases, the authorities are targeting expressive art and not any photographic evidence of a crime.”

I guess this gets into the core of what child pornography laws are meant to be about. Are you protecting children from being exploited and therefore only actual photographs would be illegal or are you trying to police people's thoughts and curb depravity in which case even a drawing you make yourself could be considered illegal?

Personally I would prefer that the laws stay firmly in the first category, I'm not a big fan of laws that try to govern how people think.

Moralfaggotry at its finest. Anti-loli laws are the perfect example of a thought crime: people are criminalised for thinkingthings other people don't like, even though no-one gets harmed.

The US needs to declare war on Canada!

be carefull with that.. the wrong picture and someone will arrest you for childporngraphy...

The law protects those that have money to afford lawyers.

You're lucky that you don't live in Canada! You could be arrested for that! You filthy paedophile!

Just think of the children...

No, don't think about them in that way!

Seriously. You had to use such a homophobic term?

Sad, but very true.

I'm curious though, what kind of person actually reads such material, if not a paedophile.

Well that depends what it was since all we know is that some guy at a customs office considered it child pornograpy, could just be some high school manga with a few risque scenes or it could be full on loli hentai.  If it's the second than yes he's a paedophile, but if he doesn't act out on his desires I see no reason he should be punushed for thinking whatever he wants long as the material wasn't made by exploiting children (which it wasn't) then the law shouldn't have a say.