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by Taniwha 2594 days ago
Certainly, like child porn, watching snuff movies was already illegal in NZ before the alt-right terrorist attack, all the NZ censor did was confirm that the snuff movie fell under that category, it was essentially born illegal. No one passed any special new laws to make it so.

It also falls under the US supreme court test for obscenity and is equally illegal in the US
2 comments
asdf21 2594 days ago
>It also falls under the US supreme court test for obscenity and is equally illegal in the US

I don't think that's correct.

There are no federal obscenity laws. The U.S. government does not expressly prohibit obscene conduct. In fact, the U.S. government expressly protects some communications in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

https://legalcareerpath.com/obscenity-law/

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Taniwha 2594 days ago
18 USC 71 ... is the federal obscenity law, it's been much patched in and around child porn, but the basic law is still there. Of course there's been a lot of Supreme Court rulings in and around it culminating in the Miller test ... Your 'shooting video' is really a snuff film, probably one of the few genuine ones (along with those made by ISIS, and just as bad) and certainly falls under the Miller test
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rgbrenner 2594 days ago
You can't just redefine a murder video as pornographic because you don't like it. You mentioned the miller test, so you already know it requires that it depict "sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law".

Ignoring the state law requirement (which you haven't cited), the video does not depict sexual conduct.. and there's no way you can twist this into being illegal in the US. It's not illegal. Period. ISIS videos aren't illegal either.

You've clearly misunderstood our laws.

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Taniwha 2593 days ago
18 USC 71 is about 'obscenity', which doesn't just include pornography. These days it includes a bunch of clauses about child porn, but that's mostly about politicians wanting to get their names on the board. The original, base law is more general and its definition comes from common law modulated by many supreme court decisions
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asdf21 2594 days ago
I mean, /r/watchpeopledie was active for nearly a decade and never had legal issues.. I'm not sure this is enforced in any meaningful way.
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hnaccy 2594 days ago
>It also falls under the US supreme court test for obscenity and is equally illegal in the US

I fail to see how a shooting video appeals to the prurient interest in any way.

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