Flutterby™! : U Toronto porn collection illegal

Stolen from Debra who got it from Jamie Joy Gatto, the really interesting bit about the recent donation of a huge porn archive to the University of Toronto by CBC radio producer Max Allen is that much of the collection is illegal in Canada. That entry below about culture in Chattanooga versus the Bay Area? Ditto for Canada versus the United States.

Carolyn Tuohy, vice-president of policy development and deputy provost, denies there was undue delay. "We get individual books and artworks all the time, but to have a full collection donated is not all that common," she says. "My role has been to make sure we do our due diligence, consider what costs it might impose, where it fits into the university, the complexities on the legal side. We had to seek advice on privacy issues and on whether the university could incur civil and criminal liabilities, since the collection contains material it's illegal to possess under the Criminal Code." Access protocols are being developed, Tuohy says, to ensure only genuine researchers can see the collection.

Something else that I get shivery feelings about is this idea of "genuine researchers". What distinguishes an archeologist from a grave-robber? Largely who they work for. The idea that we've passed knowledge over to be the domain of a set of monopolistic institutions scares me.