Let's talk about censorship at Sleepycomics.com...

There was a discussion thread in a recent scene that caused me to think a lot lately. I posted a scene from my collection that had some questionable content, and I think it got some people worried. I want to use this post to address some of these concerns.

Let's start with a question: How is Sleepycomics.com possible? How can a website which has drawings of women being chloroformed, gassed, tied up, gagged, hit over the head, etc...exist in America?

We are allowed to exist because we have an amazing thing called free speech. We live in a society where we don't have to repress ourselves..we have the freedom to express ourselves. We share these images and we celebrate them freely, without worrying about being persecuted. It's a fundamental right we have.

There's a line though that we can't cross. That line is obscenity, and it is not protected by The First Amendment. Obscenity is content the community deems harmful to be shown, and includes things like extreme violence or pornography. As long as our expression doesn't harm anyone and is not obscene, we are protected by The First Amendment.

The obscenity clause is the reason why I censor nudity pretty liberally now. I usually censor it if I determine it to be "sexually explicit". Everyone's definition of "sexually explicit" is different. Some people think showing full frontal nudity is okay...some think it's explicit. Some people think showing a little nipple is okay...some don't. It depends on who you ask. It's a judgement call that I make every time I approve a scene. And believe it or not, sometimes it's a difficult call.
For example, everyone loves Dejah Thoris scenes. Only problem? The Martian Goddess wears practically nothing. Should I censor her scenes? I decided not to, because I deemed the nudity to be "artistic and tasteful". In other words, it wasn't obscene nudity.

There was another manga scene I found a few weeks back that was also a tough call. One of the pages had an unconscious woman, with full breasts exposed front and center. I debated whether I should share this find uncensored or not. I decided to censor it because I deemed it too explicit. I didn't like it though, because a beautiful scene was ruined by a bunch of square pixels.

Then there is the question of "underage" damsels. This is another tough balancing act. I decided early on, that the same rules apply: non-obscene free speech. As long as the scene doesn't show extreme violence, is not obscene and not sexually explicit...I don't have a problem with it. That is my rule. This rule seems crazy, and it may result in offensive content being posted every once in a while...but freedom has costs.

I'd rather show the world what I find, rather than hold back the information. Remember, every time I censor something, that's potentially good content that you will never see.

That being said, here are the following action items I plan to take:
* I will continue censoring images I find obscene.
* I will audit the database for previously approved stuff and remove anything obscene. I apologize if this causes your favorite scene to disappear.
* I am going to scale back my usage of exhentai.org as a source, and focus more on mainstream manga, comics and original art. Most of the good content from that site has been found anyway.
* I will continue to post my best scene finds.

Thank you for understanding. If you have questions or concerns, please e-mail me at [email protected]. I WILL respond.

Free speech is an amazing thing. Appreciate it, and embrace it.