Depending on the way you interpret the proposed new legislation (and promised wave of crackdowns) on “violent pornography” stuff like this is potentially illegal again (read BME’s old Spannerman coverage) in the UK (both possesion and production). I don’t think* that there is any intent to go after consensual and non-commercial private activities such as those documented here, but if you’re a reader of commercial sites (as in sites where the models are paid to be tortured, rather than choosing it for themselves and sharing pictures), I would strongly urge you to keep the webcache on your computer cleared on the million to one chance they decide to go Big Brother on you.
I’d also encourage UK readers to visit the Spanner Trust.
* I may be overly optimistic here, given the lessons of history.
Comments
28 responses to “Illegal in the UK?”
I think that getting paid for it and signing a liability release and contract implies consent. I also think a lot of the people who consent to having a BDSM scene filmed are enjoying it. I could not afford a pro Domme but I could definitely get paid $500 to be filmed for 4 hours enduring a pro BDSM session.
Oh, absolutley… I’m just saying that it makes a much clearer case in the courts if people are doing it whether or not it’s distributed.
Unfortunately consent will not be an issue. It matters not whether the image you have on your computer is from a site which displays genuine pictures of unconsensual violence or whether it is a picture of a couple in a loving relationship who want a personal record of their own kinky sex games for their own personal use, as a memento. The penalty will be the same, up to 3 years in prison and inclusion on the Sex Offenders Register.
The picture does not even have to show any harm being done. To qualify for having your life turned upside down and your liberty removed, all the picture has to show is an act that APPEARS to be life threatening or likely to cause serious disabling injury.
A snapshot cannot show that the couple consented and it cannot show the safety precautions that have been taken. It cannot show the negotiations that went on before the activity started including discussion of a safeword in order to stop the play if either person felt they were unsafe. It cannot show the experience of the two people involved, nor that they have been enjoying similar activities for more than ten years without any harm being caused.
Yet if the police decide to raid their home and remove their computer, they are liable to get the same sort of sentence as if they had molested a small child.
It’s a badly thought out law and yet another erosion of our freedoms in order to appeal to the majority who buy the spin that the Governement is putting upon this new legislation.
*sigh* i dont know what this is a pic of 🙁
Peter, yes, this is a light photo of course. But BME documents things like amputations, castrations, etc., and other things that are life threatening… I agree — badly thought out law, because it goes after the appearance of harm rather than going after genuine harm.
Welcome to the UK, where we can’t even fuck how we want to.
Consent is actually used in court as evidence of “abuse”….I’ve heard that people who claim consent can actually be persecuted for being an accessory for assault. I find this horrifying.
All in the name of “Human Rights”?? Humans have the Right to get up to whatever the hell they like with a consenting partner (or partners). Freaky sex is awesome. Bring down the system!
By the way the picture is of a foreskin being pinned out. Great photography. Ouch.
Absolutely Ant. And in very simple terms, if we don’t own the right to do whatever we want to our own bodies, we are not free. There’s no more base right than the statement that you own yourself.
This law (and others like it around the world) makes the statement that your body is owned by the State.
Ooh, fishhooks and skin…
…wait, was there some text somewhere around there? 🙂
(Just kidding. So many stupid governments in this world. UGH.)
Germanys Big Brother wants to put “sexual deviantness” into the Anti-Terror-File, besides statements to religious beliefes, education and they try to prohibit the use of anon-proxies.
http://www.ftd.de/politik/deutschland/108468.html
“Aussagekräftige Informationen gehören in die Datei”, sagte der innenpolitische Sprecher der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion der FTD. Im Einzelfall könne das auch etwas “sehr Intimes” sein. Als Beispiele dafür nannte er Religionszugehörigkeit und sexuelle Auffälligkeiten.
the Verfassungsschutz (wich is some kind of intelligence agency) has the right to *hack* everyones personal computers to read files that are stored at the harddrive. to be able to do that there is a discussion to prohibit privacy-enhancing techniques like PGP or Truecrypt.
e-mail-providers with more than 1.000 costumers are forced to enable APIs for the Verfassungsschutz, so that the Verfassungsschutz can read costumers mails easily.
politic is on the way to give the same rights to “normal” police.
Hang on…
I have photos on here of me playing with a few dozen hypodermics at a time; a few of the pics show them being placed through the skin on the upper surface of my cock…
So…If I pierce my cock, remove the needles and have a bloody wank, it’s absolutely fine….But if I take photos of them, I can face a three year sentence?
Great.
*n
PS: Who wants to know how to kill the British economy with only £50,000?
I do I do!
I’m not sure what the exact consequences of this will be, but boy.. I’m sure no one is gonna like them…
I was having a conversation the other day about how it seems the States has some silly laws regarding certain body modifications.
I used to think the UK was pretty ‘cool’ on things like these.
This post just makes me realise how badly now I would love to leave this country.
I rarely save a picture to my hard drive, but am I even safe to have THIS website listed on my Favorites list?
Gah, the UK sucks.
Cool picture though. Amazing close up detail!
In today’s time it feels like no country will look upon body modification and any of the sub-cultures that seem to come along with it, in a positive light. They do not see the trust earned, the fear conquered, or the idividual who can smile through pain.
You would think these would be the first people they would try to win over for the government not the ones they hunt down. They waste so much time on such a small thing. If the site or people have filed out the proper documents and made it clear it is consentual then there shouldn’t be a big deal.
I personally think that governing bodies only hunt down and destroy that which they do not understand, nor care to take the time to understand.
The other big problem is simply STUPID PEOPLE who don’t understand cause and effect… If I remember right, this was brought on because a kid who was obsessed with violent anti-woman porn killed someone…
The suggestion that he would not have done so were it not for the porn is RIDICULOUS. I don’t have the link handy (it was on my IAM page and zentastic a week or two ago), but time has shown that the increase in access to pornography has actually REDUCED rape and other violent sex crimes.
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That said, I have serious ethical concerns about pornography that is MARKETTED as being non-consensual torture (whether it actually is or not), because I don’t think that it’s healthy to obsess over fantasies of hurting someone else. (And in my opinion, a real SM master doesn’t want to HURT their “slave”, they want to bring them to higher levels of sexual energy, experience, and ultimately enjoyment, as ChopperMark mentioned). That said, I don’t think it should be illegal either.
The whole concept of thought crimes is abhorrent.
I thought it was rape pornography that was being made illegal? I wouldn’t have thought stuff like that was included in that. Or am I completely wrong here? I don’t read the papers enough these days…
Yet another game of “Guess That Body Part”.
I hate it. this isn’t porn for fuck sake. ARGH. just argh.
& I don’t want to get in trouble for viewing this site.
& I don’t want to not be able to come on this site. what to do ?
Claire – it is all ‘violent’ porn.
I really expect that to include the kind of things we love.
*n
ah, you mean “Porn UP, Rape down?”
Quote: The incidence of rape in the United States has declined 85% in the past 25 years while access to pornography has become freely available to teenagers and adults. The Nixon and Reagan Commissions tried to show that exposure to pornographic materials produced social violence. The reverse may be true: that pornography has reduced social violence.
Thing is that mass media coverage conveys a vastly different picture. So guess what John Q. Taxpayer (who in turn elects those politicians, so the political establishment that runs western countries has to appease to their “taste”) will think about this…..
Sadly, The ONLY way this can be halted is if there`s a viable business interest that would suffer from any legislation to create some sort of counter-force.
Take a lesson from “the People vs. Larry Flynt”: You may not like what we do, but are you prepared to give up your right to do it?
this is either a picture of an anus, or someone’s pussy. either way, looks like fun…
I think it’s obvious from things I’ve written here and in the past that I really dislike pornography that involves what customers believe is genuine violence against women (or men). I despise rape porn, abortion porn, etc.. I think it’s abhorrent.
HOWEVER. I feel VERY strongly that it should be legally protected.
abortion porn ? that’s just disgusting..
bodymodgirl – anus? pussy?
It’s a penis – the foreskin is staked out on a board (the penis goes through the hole in the board).
You can see the frenum 🙂
*n
You guys think it’s rough up there(North America, Europe, etc.)?I’m from Brazil and though there’s no law or regulation about any kind of consensual acts or otherwise(yeah, you’ve read it right!) among adults, you can get busted on child porn(right again), just by owing any kind of pornography or sexualy explicit photos whatsoever.ANYTHING COUNTS AS EVIDENCE!
I admit things are going to shit over here, but still we have it a thousand times better than most countries so I won’t complain. Every aspect of your life is monitored and/ or judged these days in any country…a sad reflection on the world we live in unfortunatly.
God help them if they try to ban BME over here though! Although unlikely with the bigger focus with online threats such as the child modelling/ pornography circuit still rife.
I already had battle the authorities for BME access at 16 when the college selectively banned the site while allowing open access to EVERY other site out there. At the time I was writing an Essay on Female Genital Mutilation for my vocal section of my A level exams and was using the site for reference on the consentual modification side of the subject. With the site banned, I had to hack to be able to do this which I greatly resented.
So presentation day comes and I gave it my all. I was expecting childish sniggers from the students and disgust from the tutors but was totally wrong! My tutors were amazed at the maturity of how I handled such an adult subject and how interested the other students became in the modification side. So they put my essay through to the head and a week later BME was restored to our systems, I got my pass and students became regulars to the site…checking for tattoo inspirations and user experiences. Result.
Long live BME!
well, i must be a novice at this, ill take a look at the pic again. than penski.
As both a modified person and a gay man into BDSM I find it absoloutley abhorrent that the UK government feels they that can invade out bedrooms and dictate what we ca and cant watch.
How long will it be before body piercing and tattooing is outlawed because someone with mods murders someone?
If a black man kills, do we hate all black men? No!
If a transexual kills, do we make t-girl porn illegal? No!
Im sure a hell of a lot more murderers have been fans of violent horror movies than have been fans of violent porn. Why havent horror movies been banned?
The UK government is using this as an excuse. Nothing more.