(A) No person shall import, print, publish, exhibit, display, sell or distribute any book, pamphlet, ballad, printed paper, stereopticon slide, moving prints, figures, pictures or descriptions manifestly tending to corruption of the morals of youth; or introduce the same into any family, school or place of education; or buy, procure, receive or have in his or her possession any book, pamphlet, ballad, printed paper, stereopticon slide, moving picture film or other thing; either for the purpose of sale, exhibition, loan or circulation, or with the intent to introduce it into any family, school or place of education. Whenever any police officer arrests any person charged with any offense under the provisions of this chapter, he or she shall seize the book, pamphlet, ballad, printed paper, picture, slide, film or other thing, and take it into his or her custody to await the sentence of the court upon the trial of the offender.
(B) A person commits the offense of distributing obscene materials when he or she sells, lends, rents, gives, advertises, publishes, exhibits or otherwise disseminates to any person any obscene material of any description, knowing the obscene nature thereof, or who offers to do so, or who possesses such material with the intent so to do.
(1) Material is “obscene” when the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
(2) Material, not otherwise obscene, may be deemed “obscene” under this section if the distribution thereof, or the offer to do so, or the possession with intent to do so, is a commercial exploitation of erotica solely for the sake of prurient appeal.
(Prior Code, § 116.02) (Ord. 6-1984, passed 10-2-1984) Penalty, see § 116.99