This section shall be known and may be cited as the Charter Township of Montrose Obscenity Ordinance.
(A) Definitions. For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
CONTEMPORARY COMMUNITY STANDARDS. The customary limits of candor and decency in the Charter Township of Montrose at or near the time of the alleged violation of this act.
DISSEMINATE. 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.
(a) Having general knowledge of the nature and character of the material involved.
(b) KNOWLEDGE OF CONTENT AND CHARACTER may be proven by direct evidence or by circumstantial evidence, or both.
MATERIAL.
(a) 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, audio disk, computer tape, or any other medium used to electronically produce or reproduce images on a screen, or any mechanical, chemical, or electronic reproduction.
(b) 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. Any material that meets all of the following criteria:
(a) The average individual, applying contemporary community standards, would find the material, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
(b) The reasonable person would find the material, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value; and
(c) The material depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way.
(B) Violations. A person is guilty of obscenity when, knowing the content and character of the material, the person disseminates, or possess with intent to disseminate, any obscene material.
(Ord. 99, passed 11-18-1996, § 22.30; Am. Ord. 118, passed 3-15-1999) Penalty, see § 153.999