Obscenity definition.

Obscenity in a legal term that applies to anything offensive to moral and is often equated with term pornography. Pornography and obscenity have several differences. Pornography is more limited term which refers to the erotic content of books, magazine, films and recordings. While obscenity include pornography but include nude dancing, sexually oriented commercial telephone messages and scatological comedy routines. According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, obscene or obscenity is quite simply defined as repulsive or disgusting to the sense. The definition of what exactly constitutes an obscenity differs from culture to culture, between communities within a single culture and also between individuals within those communities. Obscenity law are concerned with prohibiting lewd, filthy, or disgusting word or picture and there are major disagreements as to what or isnt obscene and what role government should play in enforcing social or cultural morals. The history of obscenity and pornography are found in many cultures dating back millennia, but were kept from public view. In England, the society for the Suppression of Vice led to the first of several laws that gave magistrates authority to issue warrants to seize and destroy obscene materials. Prosecution of obscene libel also became common as laws became more explicit in Victorian era. All states have laws governing the distribution of obscene material. Generally, these statutes prohibit the sales, lending, renting, giving, publication, exhibition or other dissemination of materials with general knowledge of their obscene characters and content. Obscenity is typically defined as material which to the average person, applying contemporary community standards and taken as a whole: 1. Predominantly appeals to prurient interest. 2. Lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value 3. Depicts or describe nudity, sex or excretion in a patently offensive way. Only a few states, obscenity laws cover the dissemination of tangible material only. Other states prohibit the distribution to minor only; distribution to adults is not prohibited.

United States of America Obscenity Law. In United States of America, issues of obscenity raise issues of limitation on the freedom of speech and of the press which are otherwise protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme court has found that obscenity is an exception to the constitutional rights under the First Amendment, and is usually limited to content that directly refers to explicit sexual acts that are publicly accessible, though it has at times encompassed other subject matters. Legally, a distinction is made between socially permitted material and discussion that the public can access and obscenity access should be denied. In fact, federal obscenity law in the United State is highly unusual in that not only is there no uniform national standard but rather there is an explicit legal precedent that all but guarantees that something that is legally obscene in one jurisdiction may not be in another. In effect, the First Amendment protections of free speech vary by location within the U.S. Even at the federal level, there does not exist a specific listing of which exact acts are to be classified as obscene outside of the legally determined court cases. Schools, universities and libraries in United States have received government funds for many purpose and some of these fund go to censorship of obscenity in these institution. There are a few different ways in which its done. One way is by not carrying pornography or what the government deems obscene material in these places, purchase software that filters the internet activity on campus. But there are some states that have passed laws mandating censorship in schools, universities, and libraries event if they not receiving government aid that would fund censorship in these situations. The states that allow this obscenity including Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Twenty more states were considering such legislation in 2001 2002. Canada Obscenity Law. Section 163 of the Canada Criminal Code provides the countrys legal definition of obscenity. According Section 163(1), everyone commits an offense who (a) Makes, prints, publishes, distributes, circulates or has in his possession for the purpose of publication, distribution or circulation any obscene written matter, picture, model, phonograph record or other thing whatever; or (b) Makes, prints, publishes, distributes, sells or has in his possession for the purposes of publication distribution or circulation a crime comic.

Crime comic has been stated to be book that glorify criminal activities and have at least one depiction of such criminal or circulation of the books text. There have been a case in 1993, where Canadian police arrested 19 years old writer of a fictional sex story entitle The Forest wood Kids, however this case was dismissed in 1995. In February 2009, citing its Policy on the Classification of Obscene Material, CBSA has banned two Lucas Entertainment films because they show the ingestion of someone elses urine with a sexual purpose. Obscene phone call. An obscene phone call is an unsolicited telephone call where a person derives sexual pleasure by using sexual or foul language to an unknown person. Making obscene telephone call for sexual pleasure al known as telephone scatological. It has been class as a paraphilia. Paraphilia generally considered being both form of sexual harassment and a form of stalking. Generally unwilling recipients of obscene phone call are advised to simply hang up on obscene caller and to report the incident to the Telephone Company or police. Even when caller ID is not shown on the telephone screen, the calls are logged by the telephone company, so the perpetrators phone number can be discovered. In some cases, many people who regularly engage in obscene phone calls use payphones or prepaid cell phone and d in these cases, a more extensive investigation is necessary. Obscene Publication Act 1857. The Obscene Publication Act 1857(20 & 21 Vict c.83), also known as Lord Campbells Act or Campbells Act was a major piece of obscenity legislation in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. For the first time, it made the scale of obscene material a statutory offence, giving the courts power to seize and destroy offending material. Prior of this Act, whilst the exposure of sale of obscene books and prints had been made illegal in law. The publication of obscene material was treated as a common law misdemeanor and effectively prosecuting authors and publishers was difficult even in cases where the material was clearly intended as pornography. The origin of the Act itself were in a trial for the sale of pornography presided over the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Campbell ate the same time as a debate in the House of Lord over a bill aiming to restrict the sale of poisons. Campbell was taken by the analogy between two situations famously referring to the London pornography trade as a sale of poison more deadly than prussic acid, strychnine or arsenic and proposed a

bill to restrict the sale of pornography, giving statutory powers of destruction would allow for a much more effective degree of prosecution. The bill was controversial at the time, receiving strong opposition from both Houses of Parliament and was passed on the assurance by the Lord Chief Justice that was intended to apply exclusively to work written for the single purpose of corrupting morals of youth and of a nature calculated to shock the common feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind. The House of Commons amended the bill to exclude Scotland, on the grounds that Scottish common law was sufficiently stringent. Pornography in Malaysia. In Malaysia, it is illegal to sell or possess pornography. Possessing pornographic material is subject to prosecution with fine up to RM 10,000. Internet pornography-viewing however is not a crime under the Multimedia Act and is rarely censored. There are numerous pornographic websites aim to cater for Malaysian audience. The materials depicted in the website are normally the home videos made by amateurs. Recently PDRM have warned that it is a serious offence for people to possess sex videos. Those who found with pornographic videos or clips would face a jail term of up to three years, fine or both under Section 292 of the Penal Code for possession of obscene materials.

Court Case Related To Obscenity. State V. Henry (1987) The case came about when the owner of an adult bookstore, Earl Henry was charged and convicted of obscenity after police raided his store. He was fined $ 2,000 and sentenced to 60 days in jail but was allowed to remain free pending an appeal. The ACLU of Oregon filed an appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court on Mr. Henrys behalf arguing that the Oregon Constitutions free speech clause found in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and that state courts should interpret and develop state law under their state constitution without regard to the swings in interpretation at the national level, especially when state constitutions provide greater protections than the federal one. In a unanimous ruling on January 21, 1987 the Oregon Supreme Court agreed that the text of the state Constitution was broader than the text of the First Amendment and dismissed the charges against Earl Henry. The courts ruling declared that the states obscenity status was unconstitutional. The court further explained that no criminal law could outlaw a certain category of speech unless that speech represented a historically establish exception to the general guarantee of freedom of expression afforded by the state constitution, noting that the very fact that obscenity originally was pursued and repressed for its anti-establishment irreverence rather than for its bawdiness elsewhere and only to protect the moral of youth in this state leads us to conclude that no broad or all-encompassing historical exception from the guarantees of free expression was ever intended.