Laws in Europe are different in the US. I used to work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I published the entire collection online. I got calls from colleagues in Europe amazed that we didn't worry about kids seeing stuff they shouldn't. We think the US is puritan but the decision that anything with merit can't be judged obscene actually protects us.
protip: nothing gets judged as legally obscene in the US as nobody wants the actual decisive court case. Supreme Court has left a carveout that things can distinctly be considered obscene, but nobody has gone that far. they made new carveouts for child sexual depictions even it not passing the obscenity test. More recently, a man was sued under copyright laws for pirating pornography and their defense was that because the work was obscene it could not be have any copyright restrictions, of course since the law firms suing over piracy are just spraying and praying, they don't want an actual trial. This area is not resolved and likely won't ever be.
> nothing gets judged as legally obscene in the US as nobody wants the actual decisive court case
There are a lot of court cases on obscenity, some of which hold decisively [1].
> a man was sued under copyright laws for pirating pornography and their defense was that because the work was obscene it could not be have any copyright restrictions…since the law firms suing over piracy are just spraying and praying, they don't want an actual trial
Nonsense. Porn companies regularly go to court to protect their IP [2]. (To your example, in which venue was your defendant defending himself if not in a court?)
Everything in your [1] source says obscenity itself gets further and further diluted, and that the judges decisively say "obscenity exists" but are not trying cases themselves on obscenity grounds. and then stops before the year 2002. that is a laughable source as it doesn't even know what happened in the final court case mentioned and then lacks 20 years of data. this is a chronology, on this topic the relevant cases being the later ones, even in your article.
I mentioned one specific court case where one specific defendant was sued over one specific piece of content, where one specific plaintiff didn't move forward with the case after being presented with a defense, because they are serial plaintiffs that only want settlements. Your own source [2] says serial plaintiffs is what is happening! Not even sure where to start with you. The only point being about why there is not a decisive case on that particular defense because it never reached a judge.
More specifically, Liuxia Wong v Hard Drive Productions is a countercase, referring to Hard Drive Productions demanding a settlement from Liuxia for infringing on their copyright of a porn movie. Liuxia sued them back saying it wasn't copyrightable. What you will find online are motions to dismiss, which were denied. Then you'll find there was a settlement
short discussion (about why its largely unsatisfactory in establishing any precedent and reinforces how there likely won't be any precendent on this matter as nobody is interested in taking it above trial courts): https://dietrolldie.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/case-closed-won...
