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N.Y. PEN Law § 235.00

This is the official text of N.Y. PEN Law § 235.00, part of New York’s Penal Law — defines crimes and punishments in New York.

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Obscenity; definitions of terms

Official statutory text

§ 235.00 Obscenity; definitions of terms.\n The following definitions are applicable to sections 235.05, 235.10\nand 235.15:\n 1. "Obscene." Any material or performance is "obscene" if (a) the\naverage person, applying contemporary community standards, would find\nthat considered as a whole, its predominant appeal is to the prurient\ninterest in sex, and (b) it depicts or describes in a patently offensive\nmanner, actual or simulated: vaginal sexual contact, a crime under the\nformer sections 130.50, 130.45, and 130.40 of the penal law, oral sexual\ncontact, anal sexual contact, sexual bestiality, masturbation, sadism,\nmasochism, excretion or lewd exhibition of the genitals, and (c)\nconsidered as a whole, it lacks serious literary, artistic, political,\nand scientific value. Predominant appeal shall be judged with reference\nto ordinary adults unless it appears from the character of the material\nor the circumstances of its dissemination to be designed for children or\nother especially susceptible audience.\n 2. "Material" means anything tangible which is capable of being used\nor adapted to arouse interest, whether through the medium of reading,\nobservation, sound or in any other manner.\n 3. "Performance" means any play, motion picture, dance or other\nexhibition performed before an audience.\n 4. "Promote" means to manufacture, issue, sell, give, provide, lend,\nmail, deliver, transfer, transmute, publish, distribute, circulate,\ndisseminate, present, exhibit or advertise, or to offer or agree to do\nthe same.\n 5. "Wholesale promote" means to manufacture, issue, sell, provide,\nmail, deliver, transfer, transmute, publish, distribute, circulate,\ndisseminate or to offer or agree to do the same for purposes of resale.\n 6. "Simulated" means the explicit depiction or description of any of\nthe types of conduct set forth in clause (b) of subdivision one of this\nsection, which creates the appearance of such conduct.\n 7. " Criminal sexual act" means any of the types of sexual conduct\ndefined in subdivision two of section 130.00 provided, however, that in\nany prosecution under this article the marital status of the persons\nengaged in such conduct shall be irrelevant and shall not be considered.\n

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