75-621: Since 1857, a series of obscenity laws known as the Obscene Publications Acts have governed what can be published in England and Wales . The classic definition of criminal obscenity is if it "tends to deprave and corrupt," stated in 1868 by Lord Justice Cockburn , in Regina v. Hicklin , now known as the Hicklin test . There have been several Acts of Parliament of this name: Of these, only
150-519: A Massachusetts court outlawed Fanny Hill . The publisher, Peter Holmes, was convicted for printing a "lewd and obscene" novel. Holmes appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court . He claimed that the judge, relying only on the prosecution's description, had not even seen the book. The state Supreme Court was not swayed. The Chief Justice wrote that Holmes was "a scandalous and evil disposed person" who had contrived to "debauch and corrupt"
225-458: A brothel. She sees a sexual encounter between an ugly older couple and another between a young attractive couple, and participates in a lesbian encounter with Phoebe, a bisexual prostitute. A customer, Charles, induces Fanny to escape. She loses her virginity to Charles and becomes his lover. Charles is sent away by deception to the South Seas, and Fanny is driven by desperation and poverty to become
300-645: A child. In New York v. Ferber , 458 U.S. 747 (1982), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that child pornography need not be legally obscene in order to be outlawed. The Court ruled that in contrast to the types of images considered in Miller , images that depicted underlying harm to children need not appeal to "the prurient interest of the average person", portray sexual conduct in "a patently offensive manner", nor be considered holistically, in order to be proscribed. Another difference between U.S. constitutional law concerning obscenity and that governing child pornography
375-474: A conviction for mailing and delivery of a newspaper called the Chicago Dispatch , containing "obscene, lewd, lascivious, and indecent materials", which was later upheld in several cases. One of these was "A Book Named John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure " v. Attorney General of Com. of Massachusetts, " 383 U.S. 413 (1966) " wherein the book " Fanny Hill ", written by John Cleland c. 1760 ,
450-471: A defense witness in a court hearing. Although Cohen removed the jacket before entering the courtroom, he had been observed wearing it in the courthouse corridor by a court officer. When Cohen left the courtroom, the officer arrested him for disturbing the peace. Cohen defended his attire as being an expression of disapproval of the war in Vietnam. Nonetheless, he was convicted of "maliciously and willfully disturbing
525-564: A fine. Criticism to the legislation have included: It is often used against people who expose their nude bodies in public environments that were not warranted a license to cater to the demographic interested in such practice (the first such place was the Praia do Abricó in Rio de Janeiro, in 1994), even if no sexual action took place, and it may include, for example, a double standard for the chest area of women and men in which only women are penalized. Such
600-563: A legal term, it usually refers to descriptions and depictions of people engaged in sexual and excretory activity. In the United States , issues of obscenity raise issues of limitations on the freedom of speech and of the press , which are otherwise protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution . Federal obscenity law in the U.S. is unusual in that there is no uniform national standard. Former Justice Potter Stewart of
675-574: A life of contentment with her loving husband Charles and their children, to an unnamed acquaintance identified only as 'Madam.' Fanny has been prevailed upon by 'Madam' to recount the 'scandalous stages' of her earlier life, which she proceeds to do with 'stark naked truth' as her governing principle. The first letter begins with a short account of Fanny's impoverished childhood in a Lancashire village. At age 14, she loses her parents to smallpox , arrives in London to look for domestic work, and gets lured into
750-453: A push to prosecute obscenity cases. Red Rose Stories, a site dedicated to text-only fantasy stories, became one of many sites targeted by the FBI for shutdown. The government alleged that Red Rose Stories contained depictions of child rape. The publisher pleaded guilty. Extreme pornographer Max Hardcore served 30 months of a 46-month prison sentence for obscenity. Many U.S. states have had bans on
825-522: A sado-masochistic session with a man involving mutual flagellation with birch-rods. These are interspersed with narratives which do not involve Fanny directly; for instance, three other girls in the house (Emily, Louisa and Harriett) describe their own losses of virginity, and the nymphomaniac Louisa seduces the immensely endowed but imbecilic "good-natured Dick". Fanny also describes anal intercourse between two older boys (removed from several later editions). Eventually Fanny retires from prostitution and becomes
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#1732852380311900-694: A sign in the window of the Magic Shop in Tottenham Court Road in London, run by Ralph Gold. An officer went to the shop, bought a copy, and delivered it to Bow Street magistrate Sir Robert Blundell, who issued a search warrant. At the same time, two officers from the Metropolitan Police 's Obscene Publications Branch visited Mayflower Books in Vauxhall Bridge Road to determine whether copies of
975-486: A thing took place in the 2012 FEMEN protests in São Paulo. Various countries have different standings on the types of materials that they as legal bodies permit their citizens to have access to and disseminate among their local populations. The set of these countries' permissible content vary widely accordingly with some having extreme punishment up to and including execution for members who violate their restrictions, as in
1050-618: A variety of content involving pornography and violence. Section 163 of the Canadian Criminal Code provides the country's legal definition of "obscenity". Officially termed as "Offences Tending to Corrupt Morals", the Canadian prohibited class of articles that are to be legally included as "obscene things" is very broad, including text-only written material, pictures, models (including statues) records or "any other obscene thing". According to Section 163(8), if "a dominant characteristic of
1125-500: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin obscēnus , obscaenus , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral repugnance and outrage in expressions such as "obscene profits " and "the obscenity of war". As
1200-410: Is a record of child sexual abuse . Abuse of the child occurs during the sexual acts that are recorded in the production of child pornography, and several professors of psychology state that memories of the abuse are maintained as long as visual records exist, are accessed, and are "exploited perversely". Some countries also bans writings —that depict sexually explicit activities involving
1275-457: Is composed of two articles, Art. 233 "Obscene Act", "to practice an obscene act in a public place, or open or exposed to the public", punished with arrest of 3 months to 1 year or a fine; and Art. 234 "Obscene Written Piece or Object", to do, import, export, purchase or have in one's property, to ends of trade, distribution or public display, any written, drew, painted, stamped or object piece of obscenity, punished with arrest of 6 months to 1 year or
1350-631: Is conventional for the time, in that it denounces sodomy, frowns upon vice and approves of only heterosexual unions based upon mutual love. The plot was described as 'operatic' by John Hollander , who said that "the book's language and its protagonist's character are its greatest virtues". Literary critic Felicity A. Nussbaum describes the girls in Mrs Cole's brothel as " 'a little troop of love' who provide compliments, caresses, and congratulation to their fellow whores' erotic achievements". According to literary critic Thomas Holmes, Fanny and Mrs Cole see
1425-475: Is if it "tends to deprave and corrupt", stated in 1868 by Lord Justice Cockburn , in Regina v. Hicklin , now known as the Hicklin test . Stanley Kauffmann 's novel The Philanderer was published by Penguin Books in 1957 and was unsuccessfully prosecuted for obscenity. The Obscene Publications Act is famously vague, defining obscenity with reference to material that is likely to "deprave and corrupt". The 1959 act
1500-478: Is never punished for them. In fact, Fanny is ultimately able to achieve her own happy ending when she is able to find Charles again, marrying him and living in a life of wealth. This can be viewed in sharp contrast to a work like Pamela , where sexual acts are avoided for the sake of maintaining virtue. Meanwhile, within Fanny Hill , normally deplorable acts can be conducted with little to no consequence. Because of
1575-418: Is not a total fix to forget her emotions. Andrea Haslanger argues in her dissertation how the use of first-person narrative in the 18th century "undermines, rather than secures, the individual" in classic epistolary novels like Roxana by Daniel Defoe , Evelina by Fanny Burney , Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and specifically Fanny Hill . Haslanger claims that "the paradox of pornographic narration
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#17328523803111650-475: Is that it mobilizes certain aspects of the first person (the description of intimate details) while eradicating others (the expression of disagreement or resistance)" (19). With this in mind, she raises the question of "whether 'I' denotes consciousness or body or both" (34). With sexual acts being viewed as taboo within 18th-century England, Fanny Hill strayed far away from the norm in comparison to other works of its time. A large portion of books that focused on
1725-561: Is that the Supreme Court ruled in Stanley v. Georgia , 394 U.S. 557 (1969), that possession of obscene material could not be criminalized, while in Osborne v. Ohio , 495 U.S. 103 (1990), the high court ruled that possession of child pornography could be criminalized. The reason was that the motive for criminalizing child pornography possession was "to destroy a market for
1800-675: The Marquis de Sade . Obscenity law has been criticized in the following areas: Obscenity laws remain enforceable under Miller despite these criticisms. Some states have passed laws mandating censorship in schools, universities, and libraries even if they are not receiving government aid that would require censorship in these institutions . These include Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Twenty more states were considering such legislation in 2001–2002. Child pornography refers to images or films (also known as child abuse images ); as such, visual child pornography
1875-568: The Supreme Court of the United States , in attempting to classify what material constituted exactly "what is obscene", famously wrote, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced ... [b]ut I know it when I see it ...." In the U.S., the 1973 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in Miller v. California established a three-tiered test to determine what
1950-596: The United States Supreme Court ruled in Memoirs v. Massachusetts that Fanny Hill did not meet the Roth standard for obscenity. The art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann recommended the work in a letter for "its delicate sensitivities and noble ideas" expressed in "an elevated Pindaric style". The original work was not illustrated, but many editions of this book have contained illustrations, often depicting
2025-486: The 19-year-old writer of a fictional sex story "The Forestwood Kids"; however, the case was dismissed in 1995. In February 2009, citing its Policy On The Classification Of Obscene Material , the CBSA banned two Lucas Entertainment films because they show the "ingestion of someone else's urine... with a sexual purpose". In 2016 Mark Marek, owner of bestgore.com , pleaded guilty to breaching obscenity legislation for posting
2100-626: The 1959 and 1964 acts are still in force in England and Wales, as amended by more recent legislation. They define the legal bounds of obscenity in England and Wales, and are used to enforce the removal of obscene material. Irish law diverged from English law in 1929, replacing the OPA 1857 with a new Irish act . Scottish prohibitions on obscene material are to be found in section 51 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 . This legislation article
2175-524: The 1960s. Fanny Hill Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure —popularly known as Fanny Hill —is an erotic novel by the English novelist John Cleland first published in London in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London, it is considered "the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel". It is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. The book exemplifies
2250-714: The BBFC. If the BBFC refuses a certificate, a video is effectively banned for home viewing, but not necessarily in the cinema . Four films that were originally refused a certificate— The Exorcist , Straw Dogs , The Evil Dead , and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre —were granted a certificate in the late 1990s and have subsequently been screened on mainstream television . According to the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993, "publication may be age-restricted if it contains highly offensive language likely to cause serious harm". In New Zealand, screening of Deep Throat (1972)
2325-660: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the word "fuck", although almost universally considered obscene when used to describe sexual intercourse, is speech-protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution when used to express a political belief. On 26 April 1968, Paul Robert Cohen, then 19 years old, donned a jacket bearing the words "Fuck the Draft" while visiting the Los Angeles Courthouse to testify as
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2400-493: The UK prosecuted a man for writing a fictional sex story ( R v Walker ). In 2009, the crown prosecution service (CPS) dropped the case. During the 1960s and 1970s most Western countries legalised hardcore pornography . By the 1980s the UK was almost the only liberal democracy where the sale of hardcore pornography was still completely illegal, although ownership was not a criminal offence (except child pornography ). Home videotape
2475-400: The authorities tried to prevent the illegal sale of pornography they found that juries , while not particularly liking the material, were reluctant to convict defendants where the material was intended for private use among consenting adults. During the 1990s the advent of the internet made it easier than ever before for British citizens to access hardcore material. Finally, in 2000, following
2550-440: The book have frequently featured illustrations, many have been of poor quality. An exception to this is the set of mezzotints , probably designed by the artist George Morland and engraved by his friend John Raphael Smith that accompanied one edition. The novel consists of two long letters (which appear as volumes I and II of the original edition) written by Frances 'Fanny' Hill, a rich Englishwoman in her middle age, who leads
2625-520: The book were kept on the premises. They interviewed Powell, the publisher, and took away the five copies there. The police returned to the Magic Shop and seized 171 copies of the book, and in December, Gold was summonsed under section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 . By then, Mayflower had distributed 82,000 copies of the book, but it was Gold who was being tried, although Mayflower covered
2700-590: The case of Iran where the current laws against pornography now include death sentences for those convicted of producing pornography. In India the Obscenity law is the same as had been framed by the British Government. Charges of obscenity have been levelled against various writers and poets till date; the law has not yet been revised. The famous trials relate to the Hungryalists who were arrested and prosecuted in
2775-473: The character of Pamela is able to resist sexual temptation, thus maintaining her virtue and being rewarded in the end with a prosperous life. However, Fanny Hill was widely considered to be the first work of its time to focus on the idea of sexual deviance being an act of pleasure, rather than something that was simply shameful. This can be seen through Fanny's character partaking in acts that would normally be viewed as deplorable by society's standards, but then
2850-481: The citizens of Massachusetts and "to raise and create in their minds inordinate and lustful desires". In 1963, after the 1960 court decision in R v Penguin Books Ltd that allowed the continuing publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover , Gareth Powell 's Mayflower Books published an uncensored paperback version of Fanny Hill . The police became aware of the 1963 edition a few days before publication, having spotted
2925-533: The courthouse was not speech but conduct amounting to an "absurd and immature antic". Standards superseded by the Miller Test include: FCC rules and federal law govern obscenity in broadcast media. Many historically important works have been described as obscene or prosecuted under obscenity laws, including the works of Charles Baudelaire , Lenny Bruce , William S. Burroughs , Allen Ginsberg , James Joyce , D. H. Lawrence , Henry Miller , Samuel Beckett , and
3000-514: The dismissal of a test case brought by the BBFC , hardcore pornography was effectively legalised, subject to certain conditions and licensing restrictions. It is still an offence to sell obscene material by mail order . After 1984, videotape sellers were more likely to be prosecuted under the Video Recordings Act rather than the OPA. The VRA requires that all videos must have a certificate from
3075-419: The end of the first letter. The second letter begins with a rumination on the tedium of writing about sex and the difficulty of driving a middle course between vulgar language and "mincing metaphors and affected circumlocutions". Fanny then describes her adventures in the house of Mrs Cole, which include a public orgy, an elaborately orchestrated bogus sale of her "virginity" to a rich dupe called Mr Norbert, and
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3150-599: The exploitative use of children" rather than to prevent the material from poisoning the minds of its viewers. The three dissenting justices in that case argued, "While the sexual exploitation of children is undoubtedly a serious problem, Ohio may employ other weapons to combat it." This is most notably shown with the "X" rating under which some films are categorized. The most notable films given an "X" rating were Deep Throat (1972) and The Devil in Miss Jones (1973). These films show explicit, non-simulated, penetrative sex that
3225-569: The historical, social and economic themes underlying the novel. The novel was published in two installments, on 21 November 1748 and in February 1749, by Fenton Griffiths and his brother Ralph under the name "G. Fenton". There has been speculation that the novel was at least partly written by 1740, when Cleland was stationed in Bombay as an employee of the East India Company . Initially, there
3300-403: The homosexual act thus: "the act subverts not only the hierarchy of the male over the female, but also what they consider nature's law regarding the role of intercourse and procreation". There are numerous scholars who claim that Fanny in her name refers to a woman's vulva , or that Hill refers to the mons pubis , mound of Venus. However, this interpretation lacks corroborating evidence:
3375-427: The idea of sex were written in the form of conduct novels: books that would focus on teaching women the proper ways to behave and live their lives in as virtuous a manner as possible. These novels encouraged women to stay away from sexual deviance, for if they were to remain virtuous then they would ultimately be rewarded. One example of this is Samuel Richardson 's conduct novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded , in which
3450-427: The kept woman of a rich merchant named Mr H—. After enjoying a brief period of stability, she sees Mr H— have a sexual encounter with her own maid, and goes on to seduce Will (the young footman of Mr H—) as an act of revenge. She is discovered by Mr H— as she is having a sexual encounter with Will. After being abandoned by Mr H—, Fanny becomes a prostitute for wealthy clients in a pleasure-house run by Mrs Cole. This marks
3525-467: The legal costs. The trial took place in February 1964. The defence argued that Fanny Hill was a historical source book and that it was a joyful celebration of normal non-perverted sex—bawdy rather than pornographic. The prosecution countered by stressing one atypical scene involving flagellation, and won. Mayflower elected not to appeal. Luxor Press published a 9/6 edition in January 1964, using text "exactly
3600-629: The lover of a rich and worldly-wise man of 60 (described by Fanny as a "rational pleasurist"). This phase of Fanny's life brings about her intellectual development, and leaves her wealthy when her lover dies of a sudden cold. Soon after, she has a chance encounter with Charles, who has returned as a poor man to England after being shipwrecked. Fanny offers her fortune to Charles unconditionally, but he insists on marrying her. The novel's developed characters include Charles, Mrs Jones (Fanny's landlady), Mrs Cole, Will, Mr H— and Mr Norbert. The prose includes long sentences with many subordinate clauses. Its morality
3675-675: The northern English city of Leeds . Parts of the Act were repealed shortly after the Paraskos trial and it has rarely been used since in relation to visual art. Sex crime has generated particular concern. In 1976 the BBFC said that, in that year, it had viewed 58 films depicting "explicit rape", declaring scenes that glorified it as "obscene". As opposed to questions of "indecency", which have been applied to sexual explicitness, films charged with being obscene have been viewed as having "a tendency to deprave and corrupt" and been liable to prosecution. In 2008,
3750-430: The novel's sexual content. Distributors of the novel such as John Crosby were imprisoned for "exhibiting [not selling] to sundry persons a certain lewd and indecent book, containing very lewd and obscene pictures or engravings". Sellers of the novel such as Peter Holmes were imprisoned and charged that they "did utter, publish and deliver to one [name]; a certain lewd, wicked, scandalous, infamous and obscene print, on paper,
3825-452: The peace" and sentenced to 30 days in jail. The conviction was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court of California but reversed by the Supreme Court. In a 5–4 decision, Justice Harlan wrote for the Court that Cohen's conviction was based solely on speech and was protected by the First Amendment. 403 U.S. at 26. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Blackmun countered that Cohen's wearing of the jacket in
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#17328523803113900-536: The point where in 1970 an uncensored version of Fanny Hill was again published in Britain. In 1963, Putnam published the book in the United States under the title John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure . This edition led to the arrest of New York City bookstore owner Irwin Weisfeld and clerk John Downs as part of an anti-obscenity campaign orchestrated by several major political figures. Weisfeld's conviction
3975-583: The public in the United States; the ratings are issued through the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA). The intent of the rating system is to provide information about the content of motion pictures so parents can determine whether an individual motion picture is suitable for viewing by their children. Obscenity law in England and Wales is currently governed by the Obscene Publications Act , but obscenity law dates back much further into English common law . The conviction in 1727 of Edmund Curll for
4050-607: The publication is the undue exploitation of sex, or the combination of sex and at least one of crime, horror, cruelty or violence", that publication is deemed to be "obscene" under the current law. The current law states: 163. (1) Every person commits an offence who makes, prints, publishes, distributes, circulates or has in their possession for the purpose of publication, distribution or circulation any obscene written matter, picture, model, phonograph record or any other obscene thing. The Canada Border Services Agency seizes items it labels obscene. In 1993, Canadian police arrested
4125-582: The publication of Venus in the Cloister or the Nun in her Smock under the common-law offence of disturbing the peace appears to be the first conviction for obscenity in the United Kingdom, and set a legal precedent for other convictions. These common-law ideas of obscenity formed the original basis of obscenity law in other common law countries, such as the United States. The classic definition of criminal obscenity
4200-531: The sale of sex toys , regulating them as obscene devices. Some states have seen their sex toy bans ruled unconstitutional in the courts. That ruling leaves only Mississippi, Alabama, and Virginia with current bans on the sale of obscene devices. Literature (non-fiction) communicating contraceptive information was prohibited by several states. The last such prohibition, in Connecticut, was overturned judicially in 1965. In Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971),
4275-427: The same as that employed for the de-luxe edition" in 1963. The back cover features praise from The Daily Telegraph and from the author and critic Marghanita Laski . It went through many reprints in the first couple of years. The Mayflower case highlighted the growing disconnect between the obscenity laws and the permissive society that was developing in late 1960s Britain, and was instrumental in shifting views to
4350-538: The shame and regret that she feels for leading a life of adultery, and replaces this shame with the pleasure of sexual encounters with men and women. Even though these feelings may have been replaced or forgotten, she still reflects on her past: "...and since I was now bent over the bar, I thought by plunging over head and ears into the stream I was hurried away by, to drown all sense of shame or reflection". Having little time to think about how she feels about her transition, she masks her thoughts with sexual pleasure, yet this
4425-460: The sight of two young men engaging in anal intercourse , was an interpolation made for these pirated editions, but the scene is present in the first edition (p. xxiii). In the 19th century, copies of the book were sold underground in the UK, the US and elsewhere. In 1887, a French edition appeared with illustrations by Édouard-Henri Avril . The book eventually made its way to the United States. In 1821,
4500-470: The stages. Fanny sees the phallus as both an object of terror and of delight. McCracken relates her changing view of the phallus to Burke's theory of the sublime and beautiful. Patricia Spacks discusses how Fanny has been previously deprived by her rural environment of what she can understand as real experience, and how she welcomes the whores' efforts to educate her. Since Fanny is so quickly catapulted into her new life, she has had little time to reflect on
4575-456: The term " fanny " is first known to have been used to mean female genitalia in the 1830s, and no 18th-century dictionary defines "fanny" in this way. Later in the text when Fanny is with Louisa, they come across a boy nicknamed "Good-natured Dick" who is described as having some mental disability/handicap. Louisa brings the boy in anyway, as Dick's functioning physical state supersedes his poor mental one. This scene also leads into an issue within
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#17328523803114650-416: The text of rape (for both Dick and Louisa) and how the possible label of rape is removed by resistance transitioning into pleasure. One scholar, David McCracken, writes about Fanny Hill as a bildungsroman . Her sexual development contains three life stages: innocence, experimentation, and experience. McCracken specifically addresses how Fanny's word selections on describing the phallus change throughout
4725-428: The use of euphemism . The text has no swearing or explicit scientific terms for body parts, but uses many literary devices to describe genitalia. For example, the vagina is sometimes referred to as "the nethermouth", which is also an example of psychological displacement . A critical edition by Peter Sabor includes a bibliography and explanatory notes. The collection Launching "Fanny Hill" contains several essays on
4800-581: The video of the murder of Jun Lin . He received a six-month non-custodial sentence in a plea agreement, and left court after sentencing with his mouth covered in duct tape to protest his prosecution. Ever since 1940, in the Title VI of the Penal Code, naming crimes against sexual dignity (until 2009 crimes against social conventions), the fourth chapter is dedicated to a crime named "public outrage related to modesty" ( Portuguese : ultraje público ao pudor ). It
4875-578: 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. While most recent (2016) obscenity cases in the U.S. have revolved around images and films, the first obscenity cases dealt with textual works. The classification of "obscene" and thus illegal for production and distribution has been judged on printed text-only stories starting with Dunlop v. U.S. , 165 U.S. 486 (1897), which upheld
4950-432: Was a booming market and it was relatively simple for individuals to smuggle hardcore material in from Europe or the United States, where it could be purchased legally, either for personal use or to copy it for distribution. This resulted in a considerable black market of poor quality videotapes. Meanwhile, people attempting to buy pornography legally would often be sold heavily censored R18 certificate material. While
5025-592: Was abandoned amidst derision from academics and the media . For visual works of art the main obscenity law in England and Wales was, until the 1960s, the Vagrancy Act 1838 which was successfully used in prosecutions against D.H. Lawrence for an exhibition of his paintings at the Warren Gallery, London, in 1929, and in 1966 against the British artist Stass Paraskos for an exhibition of his paintings held that year in
5100-422: Was contained in a certain printed book then and there uttered, [2] published and delivered by him said Peter Holmes intitled "Memoirs of a Woman Of Pleasure" to manifest corruption and subversion of youth, and other good citizens ... " None of the story's scenes have been exempt from illustration. Illustrations of this novel vary from the first homosexual experience to the flagellation scene. Although editions of
5175-507: Was eventually overturned in state court and the New York ban of Fanny Hill lifted. The new edition was also banned for obscenity in Massachusetts, after a mother complained to the state's Obscene Literature Control Commission. The Massachusetts high court did rule Fanny Hill obscene and the publisher's challenge to the ban then went up to the Supreme Court. In a landmark decision in 1966,
5250-496: Was judged to be obscene in a proceeding that put the book itself on trial rather than its publisher. Another was Kaplan v. California , 413 U.S. 115 (1973) whereby the court most famously determined that "Obscene material in book form is not entitled to any First Amendment protection merely because it has no pictorial content." In 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice formed the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force in
5325-526: Was no governmental reaction to the novel. However, in November 1749, a year after the first instalment was published, Cleland and Ralph Griffiths were arrested and charged with "corrupting the King's subjects". In court, Cleland renounced the novel and it was officially withdrawn. As the book became popular, pirate editions appeared. It was once believed that the scene near the end, in which Fanny reacts with disgust at
5400-403: Was obscene—and thus not protected, versus what was merely erotic and thus protected by the First Amendment . Delivering the opinion of the court, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote: 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
5475-681: Was only cleared in 1986. However, the film has not been screened because the only cinema that has tried to organize a screening was thwarted by the city council that owned the building's lease. Section 9 of the Criminal Law provide provisions against pornography , including creation, distribution and organizing public viewing. In 2016, the Ministry of Culture in China censored 23 companies for hosting obscene content online. The take-down included over 20,000 live feeds from 26 different websites that were hosting
5550-483: Was passed at the point when most Western countries were about to enter a new phase of sexual freedom . The trial of Penguin Books over their publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1960 failed to secure a conviction and the conviction in the 1971 trial of Oz magazine was overturned on appeal. An attempt to prosecute the University of Central England in 1997 over a copy of a library book by Robert Mapplethorpe
5625-640: Was presented as part of a reasonable plot with respectable production values. Some state authorities issued injunctions against such films to protect "local community standards"; in New York, the print of Deep Throat was seized mid-run, and the film's exhibitors were found guilty of promoting obscenity. According to the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated , films that include gay sex (even if implied) or female pleasure have been more harshly censored than their heterosexual, male counterparts. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) issues ratings for motion pictures exhibited and distributed commercially to
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