§ 385.130. Obscene materials; distribution prohibited.

(1) Definitions. For purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the meanings given them:

(a)

"Obscene" means and the trier of fact must find:

(i)

That the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in sex of the average person;

(ii)

That the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive manner, sexual conduct specifically defined by clause (b);

(iii)

That the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

(b)

"Sexual conduct" includes any of the following defined sexual conduct:

(i)

An act of sexual intercourse, actual or simulated, including genital-genital, anal-genital, or oral-genital intercourse, whether between human beings or between a human being and an animal.

(ii)

Sadomasochistic abuse, meaning flagellation or torture by or upon a person who is nude or clad in undergarments or in a revealing costume or the condition of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically restricted on the part of one so clothed.

(iii)

Masturbation or lewd exhibitions of the genitals including any explicit, close-up representation of a human genital organ.

(iv)

Physical contact or simulated physical contact with the clothed or unclothed pubic areas or buttocks of a human male or female, or the breasts of the female, whether alone or between members of the same or opposite sex or between humans and animals in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification.

(v)

Any act of sexual assault where physical violence or drugs are employed to overcome the will of or achieve the consent of a person to an act of sexual conduct and the effects or results of the violence or drugs are shown.

(c)

"Community" means the political subdivision from which persons properly qualified to serve as jurors in a civil proceeding are chosen.

(2)

It is unlawful for any person knowingly to exhibit, sell, print, offer to sell, give away, circulate, publish, distribute, or attempt to distribute any obscene book, magazine, pamphlet, paper, writing, card, advertisement, circular, print, picture, photograph, motion picture film, video tape, play, image, instrument, statute, drawing, or other article which is obscene. (Code 1960, As Amend., § 870.080; 81-Or-036, § 1, 2-27-81; 84-Or-118, §§ 1, 2, 7-13-84; 85-Or-020, §§ 1, 2, 1-25-85)

State law reference

Distributing obscene materials to minors, M.S. § 617.293.

Charter reference

Authority to prevent and restrain obscenity, Ch. 4, § 5(14).