…those following the Bill Henson case might also want to look at the similarities with the Eli Langer case in Canada, where intentionality was a key element in the defense. Here’s the link to the CBC coverage, with other internal links. And while we’re on it, our spies in Canada have forwarded the following:

(having won the case) “The Langer defence appealed the acquittal! This astonishing move was
because they had asked the judge to declare parts of the law void, and he didn’t. He said the law was constitutional, but Langer was not caught by it. And so his lawyers tried to get the Supreme Court to hear the
case. They refused, of course. But the factum asking for the hearing has all the details that you (and any lawyers) will love to read.”

Of course the difference here is the laws that relate to the internet: as Ruark Lewis comments: my concern is that the image cited was placed on the internet by the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney. Therefore it has extended outside the exhibition, and gallery or museum(artistic)context onto/into a global media network. If child sex offenders collect similar material to this image those images have been used as evidence to convict them of their crimes. Consequently artists and gallerists have to know how or how not to publish such images on the internet. The internet offers image replication and distribution well outside even the commercial framework or fine-art context. So the gallerists and curators need to be made aware of this condition of distribution, and that distribution needs to be set as a regulated form to some degree on the cyber network. As such, their action is an offense and they can be prosecuted by the court probably in more places than one. Art cannot work by it’s own rules outside the law. Even art has certain legal obligations even if it chooses to ignore it’s moral or ethical obligation.

Interestingly, The Age is still willing to post the offending image… Oops, maybe someone forgot! It’s now Friday 30th, and the image has been taken down… But you don’t have to be a genius to search Google Image and find related works.

Now come forward in time, and read our Ripple Effect post

(And see some curly questions for David Marr to answer on The Art Life.)