A Conversation for Internet Pornography

The Isle of Mull test

Post 1

Is mise Duncan

The UK censor uses the Isle of Mull test for deciding whether a penis is considered erect and therefore obscenen - i.e. if it is sticking out at a greater angle than the Isle of Mull sticks out at....


The Isle of Mull test

Post 2

Researcher 171182

Don't you feel sorry for people whose 'phallus' never achieves anything greater than that angle anyway!!!


The Isle of Mull test

Post 3

Space Chief, Keeper of the Destructo-Ray

Isn't it Argyll/Kintyre, rather than Mull? You know, the long, thin, dangling bit.... smiley - smiley


The Isle of Mull test

Post 4

Is mise Duncan

You're right, of course - the Mull of Kyntyre...


The Isle of Mull test

Post 5

Gnomon - time to move on

Mull of Kintyre
Oh mists rolling into the sea
My desire is always to be there
O Mull of Kintyre

(cut to hundreds of bagpipers with hairy knees)

What was Paul McCartney thinking of?


The Isle of Mull test

Post 6

Paul Johnson

There is no "uk censor", except for movies. For printed material you just have to worry about the Obscene Publications Act.

The Act specifies that something is obscene if it has a tendency to "deprave and corrupt" those who are likely to come into contact with it. There is no more specific rule on the subject.

The "Mull of Kintyre" rule has no legal standing whatsoever: it was just a rule of thumb that male glamour magazines used on the grounds that it didn't get them prosecuted.

Exactly what does count as "obscene" under the OPA is a constantly shifting grey area, and seems to depend on where you live and which judge or jury hear your case as anything else. It also depends a lot on whether the police decide to take a dim view of whatever you are doing. Such vague legislation is wide open for all sorts of abuses, and is probably illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights. But nobody has actually taken an obscenity case that far yet.


The Isle of Mull test

Post 7

wonkotsane

Have you ever noticed the map of Europe on the Euro (€) coins? Maybe they should use that instead? smiley - winkeye


The Isle of Mull test

Post 8

darkness_visible

This entry is are out-of-date: you can buy publications and videos showing erections and full sexual activity perfectly legally in Britain today. Besides which, the near-ubiquity of high-quality material available on demand in vast quantities, often for no money at all, on the Net, has practically caused the home market to evaporate.


The Isle of Mull test

Post 9

Gnomon - time to move on

Hello, darkness! Would you like to re-write the entry?


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