THE WESTERN STANDARD OF INDECENCY

       The Western standards of indecency used to be rooted in the Christian heritage. But this is true no more, particularly in the US, the biggest producer of pornography in the world (7). In the beginning the US law of obscenity followed an English law precedent. In 1868 an English case, Regina v. Hicklin, established a test that was ultimately adopted in the United States: If a work had the power to "deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences," it was obscene and therefore illegal. This old principle is based on the Christian principle of caring for other people, or as it is stated by Jesus: the greatest commandment is love your neighbour as yourself.

          Eventually, the standard of Regina v. Hicklin has been gradually forsaken. It was completely abandoned in 1973, when the famous ruling on the case Miller v. California was made. In this case, the appellant was convicted of mailing unsolicited sexually explicit material in violation of a California statute. The trial court instructed the jury to evaluate the materials by the contemporary community standards of California. Appellant's conviction was affirmed on appeal. The Supreme Court reaffirmed that obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution which protects freedom of speech, and that such material can be regulated by the States, subject to the specific safeguards enunciated in the decision. Chief Justice Warren Burger established a three-part test for determining obscenity (8). It inquired whether (1) "'the average person applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest"; (2) it "depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law"; and (3) "the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."

          When the Miller test is compared with the Regina v. Hicklin test, it is clear that it is more complex and depends more on what the judge or the jury perceive as community standards or serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. It leaves a wide loophole for pornographers to pollute the Internet by claiming that their abominations are of literary, artistic and so forth values. In any way, the Miller test will be unlikely suitable for Internet regulators, because it does not provide a clear guidance in this issue. It relies on the community standards of adjudicators. The standards will be enormously different in different parts of the world. What is perceived as of high value in Hollywood is a blasphemy to the Iranian government.