You may remember I reported earlier about Rapelay and other rape games getting banned in Japan, and apparently Penn-- of the famous Penn and Teller comedy/magic show –agrees with my assessment that such a ban is bad.
He brings up a different point from mine, which was that banning these games doesn't change anything anyway, but a point I've made in other contexts (including discussions about banning explicit lolicon): if there is no harm to anyone in its creation, and there is no proof or even solid evidence that its consumption will lead directly to harm, then it should not be censored. Doing so is only an attempt at banning a particular state of mind.
It's not illegal to be a pedophile, nor is it illegal to want to rape someone. It is illegal to act on either of those inclinations, but to try and ban material that caters to those fantasies without causing direct harm to others is, in essence, trying to ban having that fantasy. In other words, it's basically punishing a “thought crime.”
But if my saying so isn't enough for you, perhaps Penn saying so is. So here he goes:
(Thanks for the tip, Sharp!)
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http://kotaku.com/5272475/and-now-rape-games-are-not-banned-in-japan
They weren't b anned after all. THank science. Fuck you TBS.
Also, Penn makes a very agreeable argument. I give him two jumping out of hospital windows thumbs up!