According to one US court, it is:  http://io9.com/5272107/manga-collection-ruled-child-pornography-by-us-court

Unbelievable that this would actually happen in this day and age.

yeah, unbelievable eh?

/sarcasm

Yeah, ok, maybe not so much "unbelievable" as it is "incredibly stupid."  Throw in jail the guy who has a few comic books with what someone else considers "naughty drawings" while the real pedophiles are out there.

And where is this line of legal reasoning leading?  As I understand it, there is some author (probably a lot) that tends to have a lot child sexual abuse in her novels (can't think of who -- Nora Roberts?).  So does this mean authors that depict naughty things in their stories will end up in jail?  Woe to all the romance writers out there...

(Edited for grammar.)

Crap, if some people saw the Preacher series, which happens to be my all time favorite GN series, they'd probably think I needed serious therapy.  These things are an outlet, a fantasy, in no way grounded in reality.  And if we're judging people by what they read what about all those true crime readers?  How come those people aren't plotting to become serial killers? 

I'm a day late, and a dollar short, but I wanted to add my two cents to this.

I'm a giant yaoi fan, and this ruling is quite disturbing to me.  Even though the caracters in the manga I enjoy are of age, because of Japanese censorship laws, they don't always look quite their age.  I seriously worry about imporing untranslated manga, and if there will be a crackdown on the manga already released over here/being licenced to be brought over here.

The whole thing just makes me sick.

I know.  I sincerely hope that isn't the way it's going... but you never can tell in a country founded in some part by Puritans.

I like to think that there is enough common sense in our legal system to keep something like this from happening, but the tendency seems to be to pander to the vocal *extreme* minority of people who know nothing about manga (or comic books in general).

How in the world can drawings have an age. That's rediculious.