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‘I fought the law’: popular music and British obscenity law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Martin Cloonan
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Extract

In Britain the term ‘obscenity’ has enjoyed a chequered career. Obscene libel first became an offence in 1727 when an erotic book called Venus in the Cloister was found to contravene common law by tending to ‘weaken the bonds of civil society, virtue and morality’ (Robertson 1991, p. 180). Despite this, erotic literature remained freely available throughout the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century Britain got its first Obscene Publications Act. This came in 1857 and gave the police power to take books before local Justices who could order their forfeiture and destruction.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , October 1995 , pp. 349 - 363
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

References

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Additional reading

Cloonan, M. 1992. ‘Censorship and popular music: an initial attempt at identification’, Occasional Paper No. 1, University of LiverpoolGoogle Scholar
Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship. 1979. Report (London)Google Scholar
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Palmer, T. 1971. The Trials of Oz (Manchester)Google Scholar
Robertson, G. and Nicol, A. 1984. Media Law (London)Google Scholar
Romney, J. 1987. ‘They fought the law … and their lawyers won’, NME, 21 11, p. 7Google Scholar
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