Comment How does interactivity disqualify SLAPS? (Score 1) 238
These aren't even marketed as works of art, they're marketed as video games
I concede that I have not viewed incest-themed video games, as sexually explicit works do not appeal to me. However, US law classifies a video game as an audiovisual work, little different from a motion picture. I'm aware of more than one film adaptation of Lolita, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov depicting sexual abuse of a minor. I'm not aware of any statute or regulation that disqualifies a work of authorship from having "artistic value" solely because it is interactive. Could you give me something to cite about categorical exclusion of interactive audiovisual works from having "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" per the Miller test?
Note that in the Miller v California decision, Miller lost. His conviction was upheld.
The conviction was reversed and remanded. From Wikipedia's article "Miller v. California, section "Opinion of the Court":
The result of the ruling was that the Supreme Court overturned Miller's criminal conviction and remanded the case back to the California Superior Court for reconsideration of whether Miller had committed a misdemeanor.[5]
[5] Beverly G. Miller, Miller v. California: A Cold Shower for the First Amendment , 48 St. John's L. Rev. 568 (1974).
From the opinion of the Court, 413 U.S. 15 (1973):
The judgment of the Appellate Department of the Superior Court, Orange County, California, is vacated and the case remanded to that court for further proceedings not inconsistent with the First Amendment standards established by this opinion.
Could you give me something to cite about Miller's conviction having been upheld on remand?
The case introduced a three-part test, which you must have known to quote only the third part of the test.
I quoted the part of the Miller test on which authors and publishers would most likely rely in a defense. The Miller test is not like the fair use test in the copyright statute (17 USC 107), in which the judge is expected to weigh the factors against one another. A work has to meet all three parts of the Miller test to be obscene.
And "serious literary or artistic" value wouldn't pass the laugh test.
This is where we disagree on how the opinion of the Court ought to be interpreted.