§ 22-285. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this division, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Contemporary community standards means the customary limits of candor and decency in this state at or near the time of the alleged violation of this act.

Disseminate means to manufacture, sell, lend, rent, publish, exhibit, or lease to the public for commercial gain or to offer or agree to manufacture, sell, lend, rent, publish, exhibit, or lease to the public for commercial gain.

Knowledge of content and character means having general knowledge of the nature and character of the material involved. Knowledge of content and character may be proven by direct evidence or by circumstantial evidence, or both.

Material means anything tangible that is capable of being used or adapted to arouse prurient interest, whether through the medium of reading, observation, sound, or in any other manner, including but not limited to, anything printed or written, any book, magazine, newspaper, pamphlet, picture, drawing, pictorial representation, motion picture, photograph, video tape, video disk, film, transparency, slide, audiotape, audiodisk, computer tape, or any other medium used to electronically produce or reproduce images on a screen, or any mechanical, chemical, or electronic reproduction. Material includes undeveloped photographs, molds, printing plates, and other latent representational objects whether or not processing or other acts are required to make the content of the material apparent.

Obscene means any material that meets all of the following criteria:

(1)

The average individual, applying contemporary community standards, would find the material, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

(2)

The reasonable person would find the material, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

(3)

The material depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way.

Prurient interest means a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion.

Sexual conduct means one or more of the following:

(1)

Representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated.

(2)

Representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, or a lewd exhibition of the genitals.

Simulated means the explicit depiction or description of any of the types of conduct set forth in the definition of "sexual conduct" under subsection (1), which creates the appearance of such conduct.

Ultimate sexual acts means sexual intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus, anal intercourse, or any other intrusion, however slight, of any part of a person's body or of any object into the genital or anal openings of another person's body, or depictions or descriptions of sexual bestiality, sadomasochism, masturbation, or excretory functions.

(Code 1977, § 15-135)

State law reference

Similar provisions, MCL 752.362—752.364.