§ 11-31-1 - Circulation of obscene publications and shows.
SECTION 11-31-1
§ 11-31-1 Circulation of obscenepublications and shows. – (a) Every person who willfully or knowingly promotes for the purpose ofcommercial gain within the community any show, motion picture, performance,photograph, book, magazine, or other material which is obscene shall, uponconviction, be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100)nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment for not morethan two (2) years, or both.
(b) For the purpose of this section:
(1) In determining whether or not a show, motion picture,performance, photograph, book, magazine, or other material is obscene the trierof the fact must find:
(i) That the average person, applying contemporary communitystandards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurientinterest;
(ii) That the work depicts or describes, in a patentlyoffensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by this chapter; and
(iii) That the work, taken as a whole, lacks seriousliterary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
(2) "Community standards" means the geographical area of thestate of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
(3) "Knowingly" means having knowledge of the character andcontent of the material or failure on notice to exercise reasonable inspectionwhich would disclose the content and character of it.
(4) "Material" means anything tangible which is capable ofbeing used or adapted to arouse prurient interest through the medium ofreading, or observation.
(5) "Patently offensive" means so offensive on its face as toaffront current standards of decency.
(6) "Performance" means any play, motion picture, dance, orother exhibition performed before an audience.
(7) "Promote" means to manufacture, issue, sell, give,provide, lend, mail, deliver, transfer, transmit, publish, distribute,circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, or advertise or to offer or agree todo it for resale.
(8) "Sexual conduct" means:
(i) An act of sexual intercourse, normal or perverted, actualor simulated, including genital-genital, anal-genital, or oral-genitalintercourse, whether between human beings or between a human being and ananimal.
(ii) Sado-masochistic abuse, meaning flagellation or tortureby or upon a person in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification.
(iii) Masturbation, excretory functions, and lewd exhibitionsof the genitals.
(9) "Standards of decency" means community standards ofdecency.
(c) If any of the depictions and descriptions of sexualconduct described in this section are declared by a court of competentjurisdiction to be unlawfully included because the depictions or descriptionsare constitutionally protected or for any other reason, that declaration shallnot invalidate this chapter as to other sexual conduct included in this chapter.