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What happens if a movie has won an award, such as an AVN? Could this be used to counter the 'no artistic merit'-type charges?



As per Miller,"the basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be:

(a) whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,

(b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and

(c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value... If a state obscenity law is thus limited, First Amendment values are adequately protected by ultimate independent appellate review of constitutional claims when necessary."

The Court in Miller "(did) not adopt as a constitutional standard the "utterly without redeeming social value" test of Memoirs v. Massachusetts... (as) that concept has never commanded the adherence of more than three Justices at one time."

Again, Miller was decided in 1973, before the Internet came along to trancend communities and their standards. To answer your question, I suppose it would depend on what the award was. I can't imagine an award for "Best DAP" would meet the standards of Miller. But with ten new awards coming out every week, I'm sure that everyone's going to win something to cover themselves.