Can text-only be legally obscene?

[QUOTE=eldowan]
I think the third point from Bricker is really too ambiguous.

Who gets to decide if a sex/torture story has no artistic or literary value?
Value to whom? I don’t condone, but if someone was to read and then apply those details in real life, wouldn’t the text be of value to the person acting them out?
[/QUOTE]

It isn’t “from Bricker,” it is from legal precedent in the United States.

That’s the test courts use. It’s a very bad one IMHO, but there you have it. Who decides? The court.