A CRACKDOWN on extreme pornography by the Scottish Government will be difficult to enforce and could end up banning art, critics said yesterday.
Downloading images of rape and other extreme material will be punishable by up to three years in prison under laws to be unveiled next month, The Scotsman yesterday revealed.
But Conservative MSP Bill Aitken, the convener of the Justice Committee,
which will have to scrutinise the proposed Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill, said he had grave concerns over how a new law might work, especially as the new laws on downloading images of rape and serious assault could include simulations between consenting adults.
The proposal has raised the prospect of films such as A Clockwork Orange or American Psycho being made illegal if they are downloaded from the internet, but not if they are bought on a DVD.
Mr Aitken said: "Any site showing the actual rape or serious injury being imposed upon a victim is utterly unacceptable and must be acted upon. But we do have to recognise that simulated acts do sometimes occur in dramatic productions."
He suggested the law could mean banning drama, including works by Shakespeare, in which simulated violent and sexual scenes form part of the storyline.
"While I would prefer that they were not too explicit, any proposal to make the watching of such scenes illegal could be seen as an attack on artistic freedom and an illiberal move," he said. He added that questions had to be addressed over how the law could be policed.
"You have to question how it is going to be policed with the availability of material on the worldwide web and the fact that the police will have to obtain warrants for people's home computers," he said.
Concerns were also raised by libertarian organisations.
Simon Richards, director of the Freedom Association, said that, while the issue was not black and white, it could lead to unwanted restrictions on individual liberties.
"This could set a dangerous precedent," he said. "We also have to question why something could be illegal if it is downloaded and not in other forms."
However, the Scottish Government has insisted that there is unlikely to be any confusion over what is legal and illegal. There is already a law which prevents selling or distributing extreme pornography.
"This means that there is already a definition over what extreme pornography is," a Scottish Government spokesman said. "Essentially, we will be extending the law to downloading these images from the current position of selling or distributing them."
He said that full details of the bill will be revealed when it is published later this year.
However, Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, has made it clear he wants prison sentences for people who download extreme pornography and he wants to extend the current maximum of three years in jail for selling this material to five years.
