Pornographic film

Pornography is often sold or rented on DVD; shown through Internet streaming, specialty channels and pay-per-view on cable and satellite; and viewed in rapidly disappearing adult theaters.

Various groups within society considered such depictions immoral, labeled them "pornographic", and attempted to have them suppressed under other obscenity laws, with varying degrees of success.

In the 1970s, during the Golden Age of Porn, pornographic films were semi-legitimized, to the point where actors not known for appearances in such productions would be cast members (though rarely participating in the explicit scenes);[1] by the 1980s, pornography on home video achieved wider distribution.

The rise of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s changed the way pornographic films were distributed, complicating censorship regimes around the world and legal prosecutions of "obscenity".

The 7-minute 1896 film Le Coucher de la Mariée had Louise Willy [af; ca; fr; vo] performing a bathroom striptease.

"[15] Writing about the origins of underground cinema, Arthur Knight and Hollis Alpert explain that hardcore films were shipped by boat from Argentina to private buyers, mostly in France and England, but also in more distant places such as Russia and the Balkans.

[14] In Black and White and Blue (2008), one of the most scholarly attempts to document the origins of the clandestine 'stag film' trade, Dave Thompson recounts ample evidence that such an industry first had sprung up in the brothels of Buenos Aires and other South American cities by the turn of the 20th century, and then quickly spread through Central Europe over the following few years.

In his biography of Eugene O'Neill, Louis Sheaffer recounts that the playwright traveled to Buenos Aires in the 1900s and was a frequent visitor to the pornographic cinemas in the Barracas neighborhood.

According to Patrick Robertson's Film Facts, "the earliest pornographic motion picture which can definitely be dated is A L'Ecu d'Or ou la bonne auberge" made in France in 1908.

In 1958, as an offshoot of his magazines, Marks began making short films for the 8mm market of his models undressing and posing topless, popularly known as "glamour home movies".

[23] Starting in 1961, Lasse Braun was a pioneer in quality colour productions that were, in the early days, distributed by making use of his father's diplomatic privileges.

Braun was able to accumulate funds for his lavish productions from the profit gained with so-called loops, ten-minute hardcore movies which he sold to Reuben Sturman, who distributed them to 60,000 American peep show booths.

Vast amounts of this new pornography, both magazines and films, needed to be smuggled into other parts of Europe, where it was sold "under the counter" or (sometimes) shown in "members only" cinema clubs.

[29] In 1969, Blue Movie by Andy Warhol was the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States.

[34] Other notable American hardcore feature films of the 1970s include Deep Throat (1972), Behind the Green Door (1972), The Devil in Miss Jones (1973), Radley Metzger's The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) and Debbie Does Dallas (1978).

[citation needed] With the arrival of the home video cassette recorder in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the pornographic movie industry experienced massive growth and spawned adult stars like Traci Lords, Seka, Christy Canyon, Ginger Lynn, Nina Hartley,[37] and directors such as Gregory Dark.

[citation needed] Similarly, the camcorder spurred changes in pornography in the 1980s, when people could make their own amateur sex movies, whether for private use, or for wider distribution.

[citation needed] Pornography can be distributed over the Internet in a number of ways, including paysites, video hosting services and peer-to-peer file sharing.

That same year, Zentropa also produced Idioterne (1998), directed by Lars von Trier, which won many international awards and was nominated for a Golden Palm in Cannes.

Idioterne started a wave of international mainstream arthouse films featuring explicit sexual images, such as Catherine Breillat's Romance, which starred pornstar Rocco Siffredi.

[citation needed] By the 2000s, there were hundreds of adult film companies, releasing tens of thousands of productions, recorded directly on video, with minimal sets.

"[43] Pornographic films can be sold or rented out on DVD, shown through Internet and special channels and pay-per-view on cable and satellite, and in adult theaters.

However, by 2012, widespread availability of illegally copied content and other low-cost competition on the Internet had made the pornographic film industry smaller and reduced profitability.

According to the 1986 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, American adult entertainment industry has grown considerably over the past thirty years by continually changing and expanding to appeal to new markets, though the production is considered to be low-profile and clandestine.

[47] Other sources, quoted by Forbes (Adams Media Research, Veronis Suhler Communications Industry Report, and IVD), even taking into consideration all possible means (video networks and pay-per-view movies on cable and satellite, websites, in-room hotel movies, phone sex, sex toys, and magazines) mention the $2.6–3.9 billion figure (without the cellphone component).

USA Today claimed in 2003 that websites such as Danni's Hard Drive and Cybererotica.com generated $2 billion in revenue in that year, which was allegedly about 10% of the overall domestic porn market at the time.

[50] The world's largest adult movie studio Vivid Entertainment generates an estimated $100 million a year in revenue, distributing 60 films annually,[51] and selling them in video stores, hotel rooms, on cable systems, and on the Internet.

[44][57] At present, no other state in the United States has either implemented or accepted this legal distinction between commercial pornography performers versus prostitutes as shown in the Florida case where sex film maker Clinton Raymond McCowen, aka "Ray Guhn", was indicted on charges of "soliciting and engaging in prostitution" for his creation of pornography films which included "McCowen and his associates recruited up to 100 local men and women to participate in group sex scenes, the affidavit says.

"[58] The distinction that California has in its legal determination in the Freeman decision is usually denied in most states' local prostitution laws, which do not specifically exclude performers from such inclusion.

If pornographic material is prosecuted and brought to trial, a jury can deem it obscene based on: In many countries pornography is legal to distribute and to produce, but there are some restrictions.