Pornography

:This article is about pornography, material created with the purpose of sexual arousal. For alternate uses, see pornography (disambiguation).

Technology and pornography

Pornography has been a driving force behind the adoption of many technologies. Mass-distributed pornography is as old as the printing press. Almost as soon as photography was invented, it was being used to produce pornographic photographs.

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The movie camera has also been used for pornography throughout its history, and with the arrival of the home video cassette recorder the pornographic movie industry grew massively, people being able not only to view pornography in the privacy of their own home without having to go out to a theater, but also to make their own pornography.

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The fact that the adult industry has such a large consumer base has been used to suggest that it can affect even the development of technology. An oft-cited example is the suggestion that Sony Betamax lost the format war to VHS (in becoming the general home video recording/viewing system) because the adult video industry chose VHS instead of the technically superior Sony system.

Related Topics:
Betamax - Format war - VHS

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Pornographic computer games have also existed almost since the start of the industry - some of the earliest were Mystique's Atari 2600 video games, including Custer's Revenge, Beat Em and Eat Em and Gigolo. The Japanese company Hacker International, which also published games under the name Super PIG, produced several pornographic titles for the Nintendo Famicom - three of these, renamed to Bubble Bath Babes, Hot Slots and Peek-A-Boo Poker, were distributed in the USA by Panesian.

Related Topics:
Computer game - Atari 2600 - Custer's Revenge - Beat Em and Eat Em - Gigolo - Hacker International - Super PIG - Nintendo Famicom - Bubble Bath Babes - Hot Slots - Peek-A-Boo Poker - Panesian

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However, such games were for a while no longer produced very often for current consoles, largely due to the increased costs and potential legal problems associated with developing a game without the approval of the console manufacturer. With the release of BMX XXX, pornographic video games have again begun to be produced. Leisure Suit Larry and titles for game consoles feature pornography.

Related Topics:
BMX XXX - Leisure Suit Larry

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However, pornographic games are now released mostly for personal computers, with Japanese pornographic (often called hentai games or merely H games outside of Japan) games of various genres being the largest category.

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Erotic film producers are expected to play a major role in deciding the next DVD standard. Large outfits tend to support the high-capacity Blu-ray Disc, while small outfits generally favor the less-expensive HD-DVD. According to a 2004 Reuters article, "The multi-billion-dollar industry releases about 11,000 titles on DVD each year, giving it tremendous power to sway the battle between two groups of studios and technology companies competing to set standards for the next generation" http://www.bizreport.com/news/8560/.

Related Topics:
Blu-ray Disc - HD-DVD

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Photo manipulation and computer-generated pornography

A lot of pornography is digitally manipulated in sophisticated image editors such as Adobe Photoshop. This practice ranges from applying mild changes to photographs to improve the appearance of the models, such as removing skin defects, improving brightness and contrast of the photo, to extensive editing to produce photomorphs of non-existent creatures such as catgirls, or images of celebrities who may not have themselves ever consented to be filmed for pornography.

Related Topics:
Adobe Photoshop - Photomorph - Catgirl - Celebrities

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Digital manipulation requires the use of source photographs, but some pornography is produced without human actors at all. The idea of completely computer-generated pornography was conceived very early as one of the most obvious areas of application for computer graphics and 3D rendering.

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However, until the late 1990s it could not be produced cost-effectively. In early 2000s it became a growing segment, as the modeling and animation software matured and rendering capabilities of computers improved. The strongest advantage of computer-generated pornography is the ability to realistically render sexual fantasies that are impossible or illegal to film in reality.

Related Topics:
1990s - 2000s

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As of 2004, computer-generated pornography depicting situations involving children and sex with fictional characters such as Lara Croft is already produced on a limited scale. The October 2004 issue of Playboy featured topless pictures of the title character from the BloodRayne

Related Topics:
2004 - Children - Fictional character - Lara Croft - October - Playboy - BloodRayne

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videogame. http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/25/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/

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The Internet

With the arrival of the Internet, the availability of pornography increased greatly. Many of the most successful internet entrepreneurs are those who operate pornographic internet sites, and the porn industry is usually credited as being the first to make money off the internet. As well as conventional photographic or video pornography, some sites offer "interactive" video game-like entertainment. Due to the international character of the Internet, it provides an easy means for consumers of pornography that is illegal in their country (or at least illegal without a physical proof of age) to simply acquire such material from sources in another country where it is legal or not prosecuted. See internet pornography.

Related Topics:
Internet - Video game - Proof of age - Internet pornography

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The almost-zero cost of copying and shipping of digital data boosted the formation of private circles of people swapping pornography. This type of exchange is especially popular for material that is illegal, most notably child pornography and bestiality. With the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing applications such as Kazaa, pornography swapping has reached new heights. Free pornography became available en masse from other users and is no longer restricted to private groups. Large amounts of free pornography on the Internet is also distributed for marketing purposes to encourage subscriptions to paid content.

Related Topics:
Child pornography - Bestiality - Kazaa

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Since the late 90's, 'porn FROM the masses FOR the masses' seems to become another new trend. Cheap digital cameras, increasingly powerful and userfriendly software, and easy access to pornographic source material have made it possible for individuals to produce and share house-made or house-altered porn for next to no cost. This is most notable in the evolution of 3D rendered porn and the 'enhancement' of existing material (photographs/videos) by blending celebrities into them.

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On the Internet, pornography is often referred to as pr0n which is misspelled p0rn — porn written with zero, a common style in a so called leet speak. One theory on the origins of this spelling is that it was devised to fool spam filters which blocked emails with the word "porn" from coming through to the recipient. However, since leet speak has performed similar mutations on a number of words, including those unlikely to feature in unsolicited commercial e-mails (0wned, r00t, n00b, d00d), it is likely that any transformation of "porn" to "pr0n" for spamming purposes is at best an independent invention.

Related Topics:
Pr0n - Leet speak - Spam filter - Spamming

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According to Google, 68 million searches including some variation of the word "porn" occur every day.

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