View Single Post
Old 02-29-2012, 08:02 PM   #314
Elfwreck
Grand Sorcerer
Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Elfwreck ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Elfwreck's Avatar
 
Posts: 5,185
Karma: 25133758
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA
Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScalyFreak View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by djulian View Post
What does constitute obscenity? (Please don't say, "I'll know it when I see it.")
My dictionary says that in order to be obscene, something must be "abhorrent to morality or virtue; specifically : designed to incite to lust or depravity".
Dictionaries define things by common use, not technicalities. The *legal* definition of obscenity is much more narrow. The "Miller test," named for the lawsuit that established it, established the test for obscenity in the US:

The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

So: not just "offensive," but sexual and offensive, *and* lacks artistic (etc) value. (I say "etc" because artistic is probably the lowest bar to meet, although political also covers a lot of ground.) It also established "community standards" as relevant, which is a huge kettle of worms today, because nobody knows what "community" counts for online content.
Elfwreck is offline   Reply With Quote