Actually, obscenity is one of the most poorly defined concepts in US law. - Edit 1
Before modification by Ghavrel at 26/02/2011 09:57:55 PM
It's defined by the Miller Test:
"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."
- Miller v. Arizona
It's a hopeless mess. I remember taking a first amendment course as a freshman and spending a month on obscenity alone.
"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."
- Miller v. Arizona
It's a hopeless mess. I remember taking a first amendment course as a freshman and spending a month on obscenity alone.