Pornography and Obscenity
In ancient Greek, the term “pornography” means “writes about prostitutes,” emphasizing the link between pornography and prostitution. Although both involve the selling of sex for money, the two are often treated as (legally) distinct practices. The thread of the Greek root that is preserved in most modern considerations of pornography is the part about “writing” or words, and hence, particularly in the United States legal and social context, speech and expression (see Speech, Freedom of). 
 
 
Keywords: 
 
feminist philosophy; 
law; 
legal and political
Can Liberals Support a Ban on Violent Pornography?
Proponents of a ban on violent pornography have defended their position in a number of different ways. One type of argument alleges that violent pornography harms women and that banning its production and distribution would prevent much of the harm. For example, some have claimed that it (as well as much nonviolent pornography) defames all women.' Another argument is that the abuse and degradation of women depicted in violent pornography is often real rather than simulated and inflicted on unwilling models or actresses afraid to report their victimization because of their vulnerability to further harm. This argument implies that we should ban violent pornography for more or less the same reasons that we currently ban child pornography. Yet another argument taps the resources of J. L. Austin's speech act theory in an attempt to show that violent (as well as much nonviolent) pornography performs a speech act with the illocutionary force of "subordinating" and the perlocutionary force of reinforcing women's subordinate sociopolitical status.2 There are other harm arguments in addition to these, but perhaps the most popular of them is that violent pornography produces and/or strengthens in its male consumers desires to sexually assault women. Many of these consumers act on the desires, and the end result is an increased number of sexual assaults. Without elaborating on the reasons why, I believe that this last
The Illustrated Story of Copyright
PART 1: COPYRIGHT AND TECHNOLOGY - Books and Other Literary Works - Music and Sound Recordings - Movies and Television - The Computer - The Internet - PART 2: COPYRIGHT BASICS - What Does Copyright Protect? - What Does Copyright Grant? - Copyright Limitations, Exclusions, and Compromises? - Other Major Copyright Principles - International Copyright Relations