I recently spotted a discussion on Usenet that may be relevant

> So how come paper based hard core porn pictures are now legal ?

As far as print media go there is no pre-censorship (i.e. no authority vets publications before they are distributed to the public). (In the case of videos there is pre-censorship, the authority in question being the BBFC). Therefore the only censorship applied to print media is that enacted in the Obscene Publications Act - which only comes into effect after the print media have been published.

The difficulty lies in the fact that the law doesn't state what is or is not obscene (i.e. what acts or images are obscene). Obscenity is defined as that which tends to deprave or corrupt. The police could, if they chose, seize copies of Loaded (or for that matter Cosmo) as obscene but don't as they know that they would be highly unlikely to get a conviction.

Numerous obscenity case have apparently collapsed or ended in innocent verdicts in recent years so the police and the CPS shy away from prosecuting. Over the past two or three years the explicitness level of softcore mags in the UK has risen in all sectors of the market. The softer end of the softcore market (e.g Paul Raymond's stable of mags) includes more 'open legs' shots and they no longer apply the airbrush to obscure the models' anuses. The harder end of the softcore market (e.g. Whitehouse and other David Sullivan/Gold Brothers mags) - that part that tends to only be available in independently owned newsagents - now shows erections. Previously police forces tended to view the depiction of erections as a marker for what was obscene and this in fact gave rise to the commonly held misapprehension that it was 'against the law' to show erections in the UK. Clearly erections are no longer used as a marker of obscenity, as a visit to your local corner shop will quickly demonstrate.

Maintaining this trend there are now versions of European hardcore mags such as Private on fairly open sale in the UK, but I have chosen the word 'version' advisedly. The limited number of these that I have seen have been re-edited from the original versions to remove pictures of ejaculations and anal penetration. This would appear to be the new level at which the police mark obscenity.

The Private magazines appear to have been produced with the consent of the Swedish parent company - but this is not definitely the case. Pirated 'versions' of hardcore mags have been in circulation 'under the counter' for years in the UK.

So the answer is simple. Mild hardcore mags are now 'legally' on sale in the UK as the police choose not to waste taxpayers' money impounding material that a jury will as likely as not declare to be not obscene.

Customs on the other hand, work to a different, much stricter set of guidelines as to what constitutes obscenity. Magazines sold openly in many newsagents in the UK have nonetheless been seized at the border by HMC&E. Unlike the police, in addition, Customs do not have to worry about securing convictions under the Obscene Publications Act. Instead they offer the importer the choice of having the material destroyed or appealing the seizure in the magistrates court under a law forbidding the import of obscene material. As I understand it, appeals normally fail as the (lay) magistrates accept HMC&E's evidence that the material is obscene and there is no jury to decide otherwise.