extreme pornography laws

This is another feature written for uni, targetted at The Guardian. It's more opinionated than anything I've written before, but hopefully not biased.

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In January a new law came into place, banning the possession of ‘extreme pornography’. This puts thousands of law-abiding adults, who happen to have an interest in an alternative sexual lifestyle, at risk of prosecution. Natalie Blachford looks at exactly what the law means, and what effects it may have.


So what exactly is considered to be ‘extreme porn’?

According to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, it is any image which depicts an act which appears to threaten someone’s life, or an act which appears to injure or may cause an injury to a person’s breasts or genitals. The image has to be produced in a sexual context, rather than in say horror films, where obviously there are millions of images where lives are threatened and people are killed.

Note the use of the word ‘appears’ in the description. This law is not exclusive to images in which a crime is actually being committed, but includes staged acts as well. This leads to one of many questions – why should it be illegal to look at an image of something, when it is legal to actually do it?

In the Spanner trials of the 1990’s, it was ruled that you cannot consent to serious assault. However, it was later ruled in the Court of Appeal that any activity which causes injuries which are ‘transient or trifling’ should not attract the attention of the law.

There are many examples of images included by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act where the act taking place, if between consenting adults, would either cause no injury at all, or one which is transient or trifling. For instance, an image of someone holding a knife to someone’s throat, in a sexual context, could now be illegal. But this could easily be a scene acted out for the cameras, where no one gets hurts.

The same can be said for asphyxiophilia or breath control (the act which sparked the campaigning for this law). This is a sexual act when your oxygen supply is cut off to increase arousal, through strangulation or suffocation.

In 2003, Brighton schoolteacher Jane Longhurst died from strangulation. Graham Coutts was found guilty of her murder. Coutts admitted to an eight year ‘obsession’ with using the internet to find pictures of women being strangled. The logic then followed that it was looking at these pictures which led to him killing Jane Longhurst, making it murder rather than manslaughter.

However, after one unsuccessful appeal, Law Lords Bingham, Nicholls, Hutton, Rodger and Mance said there was insufficient evidence of intent, and a verdict of manslaughter should have been offered. The courts heard evidence that Coutts had safely practised breath control with other partners, and that Longhurst had admitted to a colleague that she had experimented with it as well. The Court of Appeal then quashed the murder verdict.

Despite the manslaughter ruling, Jane’s mother, Liz Longhurst, began a campaign to introduce a law to make the images Coutts had looked at illegal, based on the idea that looking at pictures of something will make you do it.

There are many people who think that this assumption is wrong, and that is the basis of the argument against these new laws. Writer and liberal radical John Ozimek has been particularly outspoken on the subject, and he believes that “the idea that mild porn leads to extreme porn, and extreme porn leads to rape, is primitive and unsubstantiated.

“When the Government produced their consultation paper,” he continues, “their ‘evidence of harm’ was cobbled together at the last minute.”

Daryl Champion, a political journalist and author, and one of the first people to respond to the consultation paper on the laws, is in agreement.

“There is no evidence that there is a link between looking at violent porn and committing violent crimes, in fact there has been substantial research which actually says there is an inverse relationship.

“With regards to the Longhurst case, it shows the inadequacies of the British law system, you can find ‘experts’ who will say whatever you want.”

Both Champion and Ozimek are extremely critical of the Government’s approach to this subject. From the start of Liz Longhurst’s campaign, she had the support of her local MP, Martin Salter, who took the issue to parliament. She then gained the support of almost every other MP, including the Home Secretary David Blunkett, and the Government have completely backed the new legislation since.

As far as Champion is concerned, what they are doing is nothing more than social repression.

“I specialised in Middle East politics,” he says, “and I think that the porn laws reflect the social repression that I have seen in other aspects of life. It’s a severe attempt by a Government to control a very important aspect of the nation’s private life.”

“There is total arrogance in the Government’s moralising,” says Ozimek. “It attacks free speech and they’re only looking at one side of the equation. The law should be kept to a minimum and only legislate when there is some sexual harm.”

As well as outspoken writers like Champion and Ozimek, there have been several high profile protests against the law. In October last year, fetish photographer Ben Westwood (son of fashion designer Vivienne) led a chain gang of bound and gagged models through central London on behalf of CAAN, the Consenting Adults Action Network.

Clair Lewis, spokesperson for CAAN, told John Ozimek in an article for The Guardian that “it is easy to trivialise this as being about a bunch of people worried about their porn stash. But the issues run far wider. Individuals are feeling scared, angry and under pressure. We do not believe government reassurances about our sexuality. We think they are as bigoted about kinkiness as previous governments were about homosexuality."

Despite the protests and arguments against the law, the fact is that once the bill was passed in the House of Commons, there was little anyone could do to stop it. Now people have to face up to what the new law means, and the overall feeling in the BDSM (bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism) community is one of extreme ill will towards the Government.

Even people who have no interest in looking at extreme pornography are concerned, because there are fears that this will simply set the ball rolling for new legislation which encroaches on their alternative sexual lifestyle.

“I don’t own anything disturbing,” says Aaron Dawson, a 35 year old fetishist from Colchester. “But I am into bondage, and I like seeing pictures of girls tied up, so how long will it be until the goalposts are moved and I can’t do that?”

It seems that this sort of wariness of what will happen next is what is worrying a lot of other people, in the BDSM community especially. There are also fears that being outspoken about it will lead to being targeted by the law, and it may make people less willing to talk to the police. Parallels have been drawn between this issue and the homophobia of 40 years ago.

“In the 70’s, gay men wouldn’t talk to police because of pure paranoia of arrest,” says Ozimek. “It could easily go the same way with this”.

Tim Woodward, editor of the worlds leading fetish magazine, Skin Two, draws the same parallel, but with a more positive long term outlook.

“It used to be completely illegal to have gay sex, but people still did it,” he says. “It will be the same with this, the law won’t stop people looking at what they like. But hopefully, alternative sexuality will become more accepted, like homosexuality has.”

Before this law came into place, anyone in possession of extreme pornography could still be prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act (in fact, they still can, and later this year a man will face trial for writing a fictional story about the kidnap, rape and murder of Girls Aloud). As a well known fetishist, Woodward was once a target of this law.

“I was once raided by a custom and excise officer, looking for obscene material. They took the view that what I had was not worth bothering with, and I hope police take that view with the extreme porn law.

“I mean, some policemen are kinky fetishists themselves,” he continues. “What would they do if they were put in that position?”

So, for anyone who hasn’t been scared into burning their porn collection, how likely is it that they will actually face prosecution?

A Ministry of Justice ‘Impact Assessment’ has suggested that by 2010 there will have been no more than 30 prosecutions under the extreme porn law. This is essentially admitting that the majority of people have absolutely nothing to worry about, making the law rather pointless. So far, there have been no arrests, and Woodward, who works at the heart of the fetish scene in the UK, says “nothing’s been heard about it, not a sausage.”

The real fear is that now this bill has been passed, the Government will try to expand on it. The Government’s motive in passing this law is what concerns many of its critics. Baroness Miller, the Liberal Democrat Peer who has been most vocal on this issue - despite having no personal involvement in it – expressed this in her public response to the law which has been widely quoted.

"People don't understand what the government was up to in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill and why they're interfering in their private affairs. No legislation should leave law-abiding citizens criminalised for private sexual behaviour that harms no one."

animals

I should be writing my dissertation right now. But instead I've spent a good 20 minutes comparing meerkats on comparethemeerkat.com. I find this way too fun. I think animal themed websites are an amazing waste of time, like stuffonmycat.com. Quite literally, it's stuff on cats, but I can look at it for hours. Cats are definitely my favourite animal to be entertained by, but otters are pretty good too. Don't see so many of them though. I also LOVE the advert for crusha with the gym kittens from last year. Apparently that means I'm a very simple person, but hey.

This week is pretty big for animals. Tonight I may dress up as a zebra. For a Zoo Party. I would have liked to be dressing up as a zebra for Zoo Slang on thursday, but sadly I have no one to go with. I am also thinking about making my birthday party on friday animal themed. But I'm not sure other people find that as exciting as I do...

So, I've now turned writing about being distracted about animals into another distraction. Awesome.

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banquet records

So the previously mentioned feature about Banquet Records is done! It's supposed to be in the style of the Financial Times Arts magazine. Wow. Pretty different style to the stuff I normally write, but I suppose different is good. Big thankyous to everyone who took time to speak to me and reply to emails etc.





More than your local record shop

As major record companies are desperately searching for new ways to make money, Natalie Blachford looks at how an independent record store is still thriving in the age of the download.


There is no official figure for how many songs are downloaded illegally. However, a spokesperson from the British Phonographic Industry said “there were 100 million legal downloads last year, and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimated that only one in 20 downloads are legal. So you can sort of work it out, there were almost two billion illegal downloads.”

This is an incredible figure, and the undeniable shift from buying music in a physical format to acquiring it digitally, through legal or illegal means, is causing great concern for record shops across the country. High street retailers Woolworths and Zavvi have collapsed, as have distributers EUK and Pinnacle.

This could make you think that independent record shops are in a precarious position. If a massive chain like Zavvi can collapse, what chance does an independent have?

“If I was running a CD shop, like HMV, I’d be shitting myself,” says Jon Tolley, the owner of Banquet Records. “But people still want something physical, vinyl is still something ‘cool’ to have.”

Four years ago, Banquet Records in Kingston upon Thames was on the brink of closure. According to Tolley, who had been working there for several years before taking over, it had been “run into the ground,” and the future looked bleak.

“I worked for nine months unpaid,” he says. “It was either pay me or buy stock, so I worked for free.”

But despite his personal sacrifices, the business was failing, and their financial troubles culminated in the previous owner being forced to sell. This is when he decided to step in, with the belief that keeping the shop open was vital to sustaining Kingston’s music scene.

“I had money from DJing, and I borrowed some, so I bought the shop and took on its debts.”

Four years on, and the shop is now a resounding success. Turnover has tripled, and as well as selling records, Banquet runs club nights New Slang, New Noise and Repeater, have bands play in the store, put on gigs, run a record label, and even sponsor the local football team, Kingstonian FC.

Singer Dave House works in the shop, as well as handling their graphic design. He thinks that the combination of all the things they do is the reason they are flourishing, when the much of the music industry is struggling.

“If there wasn’t the community and the club nights, we’d be closed in a month,” he says. “We lose money on the instores because we need an extra person working, but it’s about the long term gains.”

Tolley agrees. “Not everything we do makes money. Some of the records we put out lose money, but there are still benefits because it pushes the brand.”

Banquet's biggest club nights, New Slang and Repeater, are held at the 1000 capacity venue McCluskys. With tickets for Repeatr sold at £6 each, on a sold out night they could potentially take almost £6000 on the door, although with varying costs of running the night, even a sold out event could lose money.

It seems that the rest of the music industry may slowly be catching on to the idea that just doing one thing isn’t enough now, and that live music is the way forward.

Ged Doherty, UK Chairman of Sony BMG, gave a speech at the Brit Awards launch party, saying “We’re in the entertainment business now, not the music industry, that’s our strap-line”. Companies like Sony and Virgin are trying to move into the live bookings business, and HMV are set to take over some venues to turn them into ‘HMV Academies’.

Other independent record stores are seemingly making more of an effort as well. April 18th is Record Store Day. Independent record stores will be celebrating on this day by doing something revolutionary to regenerate interest… such as having an instore gig.

“We checked our calendar for that day,” says House. “We already had two things booked. I guess it’s a good thing for some record stores, but it’s just what we’ve been doing for years.”

Another thing which makes Banquet successful is the dedication of the staff who run it. They are all passionate, extremely knowledgeable about whatever music they are into, and love working there.

“We have 15 staff,” says Tolley, “and they’re all friends, people I can trust. For example, we only have one sound man, Danny, and he always has to be available for every instore and every club night we have. He’s never let us down”.

Dave House agrees that having the right people working there is vital. “Everyone works really hard, we don’t mess about. If you didn’t work that hard, it would be over.”

An independent shop will never be able to compete with HMV when it comes to albums, because they can order more and therefore get them for a cheaper price. Banquet would have to charge double the price for an album in order to make the same profit, but according to House that’s not the area they try to compete in.

“We can compete with the stuff they don’t know about, band’s that aren’t well known, and we can get stuff before it comes out.

“What we sell depends on the type of music,” he continues. “With indie, alternative and punk, we take an equal amount of money in albums and singles. No one will buy CD singles, but we often get people buying a lot of 7’’s. They might download the album, but buy all the 7” singles that are put out. With drum n bass, there aren’t really albums, but people want the upfront stuff straight away and will pay anything for it.”

Another reason for optimism is that Banquet may have to do less to adapt in order to survive than perhaps other record shops will.

Frank Turner is a musician who has a long standing relationship with the store, and he believes that they already have an advantage over other shops who feel threatened by the increased usage of the internet to acquire music.

“There's less need for localized specialists when everyone can get onto Amazon or whatever and order the things they want. What that means in practice is that the bar for survival for such places gets raised really high. The great thing about Banquet is that they were already operating at that level before the internet problem really kicked in.”

Banquet clearly has the support of artists like Turner, and it is easy to see why, as their relationship is beneficial for both parties. But why should your average man on the street spend money in an independent record shop, when they could download for free?

“I don’t believe in telling people they should support their local record store,” answers Tolley. “People should shop here because they want to, and because they want to give money to the band or record label.

“It doesn’t matter what happens with downloading, if you’re independent and forward thinking you will adapt.”



What do the artists they have worked with think of Banquet Records?


Hot Club de Paris –
“They seem like a bunch of friendly people who do what they do because they really like music. They always give good coverage to whatever we write/release and we’ve done some good shows with them. The website is well designed, always updated, and has good descriptions and info about all the releases, it gives the impression that they give a shit and aren’t just flogging units.”

Frank Turner –
“In my solo work they've been there being supportive since day one, helping out with instores, local club shows and so on. I think they provide an immeasurably great example to younger folks coming into the music scene. They combine specialist knowledge - on a broad range of genres - with a really important sense of local musical community. Long may they continue.”

mistakes.in.animation –
“They’re easily the best record shop in the country because everything they do directly affects the Kingston community. Banquet are responsible for pretty much every amazing Kingston night out we’ve had in the last few years, and they do it totally for the love of music, which is what’s most admirable.”

Sam Isaac –
“In my opinion they are the best independent record store in the country. What they do for musicians, music fans and the community in Kingston is unparalleled anywhere else in the UK. For me personally, the support that Banquet have shown has helped get my music to a whole new audience, and also inspired me to follow the DIY music path that I do. What Banquet do is really quite incredible.”

Tellison –
“We've been incredibly lucky as a band to work with them and it's been an honour at every point to have been able to put out records with them. There are only a handful of record shops in the UK you can walk into and immediately know you're somewhere special. Banquet Records is one of these very few magical places.”