Profits Under Assault

What is changing is the business of porn. Profits are under assault. Some officials estimate DVD sales are down as much as 50 percent in the last year — pounded by a weak economy, piracy and free or cheap porn on the Internet.

Industry execs say it’s the toughest time ever in the business of porn.

Porn’s Biggest Challenges

Porn has always been at the cutting edge of technology, helping VHS win the battle over Beta, and Blu-ray over HD DVD. It was also an early adopter of e-commerce, giving customers the anonymity they couldn’t have when visiting triple-X stores.

But, now technology has made it easy to enter the marketplace. Anyone willing to have sex on camera can be a porn star and anyone who can post a video online can be a producer.

Tube sites — like YouTube — allow people to post porn online.

Porn – Anytime, Anywhere

Thanks to technology, the peep show now comes to you. Porn is readily available on DVD, the Internet or even an iPhone or Blackberry. Filmmaker Steven Hirsch believes people are more comfortable with adult films than ever before.

Hirsch: “Porn (is) infiltrating every part of people’s lives. I mean, you see it on the Internet for free, on TV, on DVD. As a result of that, you know, these girls (porn stars) are really popular.

People know them. And, you know, mainstream picks up on that.”

Pornography and the Law

Pat Trueman is a former Director of Child Pornography and Obscenity at the Department of Justice.

“What I would say to any town in America — you don’t have to accept that porn shop in your community.

You don’t have to accept that your cable company is offering hardcore pornography. You don’t have to accept that hotel you like to stay in is selling hardcore pornography.”

While federal and state laws prohibit the distribution of obscene materials, they often are not enforced. If they were, some legal experts say studios that sell porn, cable and satellite TV companies that put porn on their systems and hotel chains that offer porn on pay-per-view would all be offenders.

Prosecuting Porn

The Justice Department declines to comment on whether porn is a priority, and says 13 defendants await trial on obscenity charges and 58 have been convicted since 2001.

Porn Addictions

Michael Leahy is a self-diagnosed porn addict and author of “Porn Nation.” He tours college campuses around the world, warning of the dangers of porn.

Michael Leahy: “I had a 30-year relationship with pornography. My life was out of control. My life became unmanageable.”

Leahy is concerned about porn’s impact on society.

“This isn’t really an addiction story as much as it is a story of how we’re becoming desensitized as a culture, as a nation.

Things that are put in front to us now (that) were sexually arousing 10 years go hardly get an increase in pulse in most people today.