Amidst recent developments in obscenity law, yestofreedom‘s sense of purpose was rekindled. During the past year, not only have proponents of stricter obscenity laws remained very active, they have made several significant political and legal gains. Far from rejecting the shoddy and ultimately useless legal framework upon which obscenity laws are built, a number of otherwise “developed” countries have taken a step further towards the criminalization of purely fictional material that is found to be “offensive” to some.
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Further Down the Road of Social Insanity
Saturday, August 20th, 2011 by AzariusWebsite’s Database Wrecked by Online Attack
Monday, January 25th, 2010 by AzariusThis weekend, http://yestofreedom.org was hit by an attack of unprecedented scale, originating from an unknown source. We are not in the position to blame anyone or any organisation, but would like to remind users that someone, whether intentionally or not, is probably breaking the law to stop us.
Misunderstanding and Moral Panic: A True Story
Sunday, January 10th, 2010 by AzariusVery human is the fear of what is not understood. Those who openly engage in unconventional conduct are bound to fight for mere tolerance – regardless of the impact, or absence thereof, of said behaviour.
The current climate of utter misunderstanding, and incidentally of moral panic, that surrounds modern Japanese visual culture is illustrated in outstanding detail in the following story that has been sent to yestofreedom by email. As the writer has expressed his desire to remain anonymous, we will refer to him as “John Smith”. The text was furthermore edited with the writer’s permission to improve legibility.
MangaGamer: “Not Censoring our Games Was Unrelated to Free Speech”
Thursday, January 7th, 2010 by AzariusWe recently decided to send a letter of support to the company MangaGamer, in response to their decision to not censor potentially “objectionable” content in upcoming eroge releases. We also made use of this email to ask for their moral support in our campaign for free speech. Below is the full text of the email we sent to info[at]manga-corp.com.
Freedom-tan
Friday, December 18th, 2009 by AzariusAs both of yestofreedom‘s current campaigns are related to Japanese subculture, and more precisely anime and manga, we have deemed relevant to create, in a line of thought similar to Wikipedia‘s Wikipe-tan, our own “-tan” anime-styled mascot.
We have named said character Freedom-tan – or, in Japanese, Jiyū-tan (自由たん) - as a clear reference to our goals and ideals. While her rather diminutive frame is somewhat meant as a reference to our campaign on lolicon art, her usual items hold a more mainstream meaning. The pen/brush is a way of defining writing as a “peaceful weapon”. The art palette, on the other hand, stands as a shield – art – against censorship and everything yestofreedom opposes. Finally, the feather, official logo of yestofreedom, symbolizes both freedom itself, through its link with bird-like features.
Logic and Censorship
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 by AzariusBrowsing through the comments on a recent post at Sankaku Complex that featured Yes to Feedom, I stumbled across these words of wisdom:
Actualy [sic] by all logical means.
Equality should support hentai as hard as they could.But they don’t think logicaly [sic] do they?
So now, do radical feminists think “logically”? The normal, reactionary answer of most readers of this very post would be that “such people can’t be logical”, that they “obviously are acting on the impulse of emotion”.
I beg to differ. Most women – and men – that militate among organisations such as Equality Now, the very kind Yes to Freedom is fighting against, are in no way short of intelligence and logic. Equality Now’s past campaigns hint to this quite conclusively.
The Beginning
Thursday, August 20th, 2009 by AzariusAs yestofreedom‘s first two campaigns begin, it is worth mentioning that the future success of this initiative entirely depends on mass participation. Your help is therefore primordial.
Passion alone will have to kindle interest in taking action, as money, fame and such have yet to be on our side. Whether you are an otaku, a fervent advocate of free speech or anything else is irrelevant, as long as you are passionate about reaching the goals we aim to attain.
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A Timeline of Events
Saturday, August 1st, 2009 by solace(Related to the Recent Movement Towards Tightening Restrictions on the Portrayal of Sexual Violence Against Women and the Sexualization of Minor Females in the Fictional Media of Japanese Anime, Manga, and Computer Games)
Summary of Events: Japan’s lucrative pornography industry is relatively liberated by many standards. Although the law prohibits the visual depiction of genitalia [1], there exists a wealth of material to satisfy an impressive variety of niche interests. Only in 1999 was the commercial production and distribution of child pornography outlawed [2], and while this marks a step forward for the protection and welfare of children, there are some who would fight to see the ban include purely fictional representations of underage sexuality, such as that portrayed in erotic anime, manga, and computer games – the production of which does not by necessity involve any real children, much less a victim [3]. Not only would such a move be a huge strike against the freedom of expression, but it could potentially introduce more – not less – danger for children [4].
Website Launch
Thursday, July 9th, 2009 by AzariusYestofreedom now has a website, merely a week after the idea of the project was formulated. It has been one demanding ride to have it running so soon, however, the circumstances made such haste primordial. The pages are still under construction, but everything is developing fast!
