A report on Obscenity

Cover of an undated American edition of Fanny Hill, c. 1910
The 18th century book Fanny Hill has been subject to obscenity trials at various times (image: plate XI: The bathing party; La baignade)

Any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time.

- Obscenity
Cover of an undated American edition of Fanny Hill, c. 1910

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Miller v. California

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Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court modifying its definition of obscenity from that of "utterly without socially redeeming value" to that which lacks "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value".

I know it when I see it

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Colloquial expression by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters.

Colloquial expression by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters.

The phrase was used in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio.

Roth v. United States

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Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957), along with its companion case Alberts v. California, was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States which redefined the Constitutional test for determining what constitutes obscene material unprotected by the First Amendment.

Jacobellis v. Ohio

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Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964), was a United States Supreme Court decision handed down in 1964 involving whether the state of Ohio could, consistent with the First Amendment, ban the showing of the Louis Malle film The Lovers (Les Amants), which the state had deemed obscene.

1932 UK authorised edition

Lady Chatterley's Lover

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Last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France.

Last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France.

1932 UK authorised edition
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Translator Sei Itō (left) and his publisher Hisajirō Oyama (right) at the first Chatterley trial in Japan.

The book was also banned for obscenity in the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Japan.

D. H. Lawrence, 1929

D. H. Lawrence

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English writer, novelist, poet and essayist.

English writer, novelist, poet and essayist.

D. H. Lawrence, 1929
Lawrence at age 21 in 1906
Photograph of Lawrence by Lady Ottoline Morrell, 29 November 1915
D. H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire

Both novels were highly controversial and were banned on publication in the UK for obscenity, although Women in Love was banned only temporarily.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)—Article 19 states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".

Freedom of speech

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Principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction.

Principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)—Article 19 states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".
Orator at Speakers' Corner in London, 1974
Permanent Free Speech Wall in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.
Members of Westboro Baptist Church (pictured in 2006) have been specifically banned from entering Canada for hate speech.
Countries with laws against Holocaust denial
The Free Speech Flag was created during the AACS encryption key controversy as "a symbol to show support for personal freedoms".
Title page of Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or List of Prohibited Books, (Venice, 1564)
In Panegyricae orationes septem (1596), Henric van Cuyck, a Dutch Bishop, defended the need for censorship and argued that Johannes Gutenberg's printing press had resulted in a world infected by "pernicious lies"—so van Cuyck singled out the Talmud and the Qur'an, and the writings of Martin Luther, Jean Calvin and Erasmus of Rotterdam.
First page of John Milton's 1644 edition of Areopagitica, in which he argued forcefully against the Licensing Order of 1643
This 1688 edition of Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend (1260) was censored according to the Index Librorum Expurgatorum of 1707, which listed the specific passages of books already in circulation that required censorship
George Orwell statue at the headquarters of the BBC. A defence of free speech in an open society, the wall behind the statue is inscribed with the words "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear", words from George Orwell's proposed preface to Animal Farm (1945).
An "unexpurgated" edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover (1959)

Freedom of speech and expression, therefore, may not be recognized as being absolute, and common limitations or boundaries to freedom of speech relate to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, hate speech, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, non-disclosure agreements, the right to privacy, dignity, the right to be forgotten, public security, and perjury.

Official portrait, 1976

Potter Stewart

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American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981.

American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981.

Official portrait, 1976

In the obscenity case of Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), Stewart wrote in his short concurrence that "hard-core pornography" was hard to define, but that "I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

Miller test

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The Miller test, also called the three-prong obscenity test, is the United States Supreme Court's test for determining whether speech or expression can be labeled obscene, in which case it is not protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and can be prohibited.

Bruce in 1961

Lenny Bruce

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American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist.

American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist.

Bruce in 1961
Bruce at his arrest in 1961
Bruce in 1963, after being arrested in San Francisco
Poster for Bruce's last series of performances, which took place at The Fillmore in San Francisco on June 24 and 25, 1966
Bruce's grave at Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California

His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon in 2003.