Reply #7: Well, that's a tough question

[mongo]

Under Federal law, and 40 states ANY explicit movie is chargable as "obscenity". I can be arrested for ANY movie in my inventory.

Many states outlaw the sale of "adult novelties" (dildos and vibrators) too.

But - we don't have prior restraint of free speech in America. They can't ban the filming of an act outright (unless it is the filming of a crime, as in child porn).

So, in order for a movie to be actually obscene and therefore illegal, a jury has to apply the Miller test:

Miller test
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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

The Miller test was developed in the 1973 case Miller v. California. It has three parts:

* Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
* Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law,
* Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

The third condition is also known as the SLAPS test. The work is considered obscene only if all three conditions are satisfied.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test

Most places getting a conviction is a crapshoot and costly for the prosecution, so they don't bother. But it is why you don't find a lot of adult outlets in Utah.

On Edit: I sould state that it is perfectly LEGAL for you to own pornography - even if it is "obscene". It is only illegal for me to sell it to you. Go figure on that one for a while.