WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor                       Ch. 6

impair the right and duty of the remaining members to perform all
the functions of the Board.]

[5.

The Board shall procure and use an official seal, which
shall contain the words "Maryland State Board of Censors,"
together with such design engraved thereon as the Board may
prescribe.]

[6.

(a)  The Board shall examine or supervise the examination of
all films or views to be exhibited or used in the State of
Maryland and shall approve and license such films or views which
are moral and proper, and shall disapprove such as are obscene,
or such as tend, in the judgment of the Board, to debase or
corrupt morals or incite to crimes. All films exclusively
portraying current events or pictorial news of the day, commonly
called news reels, may be exhibited without examination and no
license or fees shall be required therefor.

(b)  For the purposes of this article, a motion picture film
or view shall be considered to be obscene if, when considered as
a whole, its calculated purpose or dominant effect is
substantially to arouse sexual desires, and if the probability of
this effect is so great as to outweigh whatever other merits the
film may possess.

(c)  For the purposes of this article, a motion picture film
or view shall be considered to be of such a character that its
exhibition would tend to debase or corrupt morals if its dominant
purpose or effect is erotic or pornographic; or if it portrays
acts of sexual immorality, lust or lewdness, or if it expressly
or impliedly presents such acts as desirable, acceptable or
proper patterns of behavior.

(d)  For the purposes of this article, a motion picture film
or view shall be considered of such a character that its
exhibition would tend to incite to crime if the theme or the
manner of its presentation presents the commission of criminal
acts or contempt for law as constituting profitable, desirable,
acceptable, respectable or commonly accepted behavior, or if it
advocates or teaches the use of, or the methods of use of,
narcotics or habit-forming drugs.]

[7.

Upon each film which has been approved by the Board, there
shall be furnished by the Board, the following certificate or
statement: "Approved by the Maryland State Board of Censors

No......" and the Board shall also furnish a certificate or

license in writing to the same effect, which certificate shall be

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