Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, 18+ films, or also known as blue movie or blue film, are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse, fascinate, or satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotically stimulating material such as nudity (softcore) and sexual intercourse (hardcore). A distinction is sometimes made between "erotic" and "pornographic" films on the basis that the latter category contains more explicit sexuality, and focuses more on arousal than storytelling; the distinction is highly subjective.
A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products.
Gloria Leonard was an American pornographic actress during the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984) who later became the publisher of High Society magazine. As a board member of Adult Video Association and its successor the Free Speech Coalition, Leonard was an outspoken advocate for the adult film industry and free speech rights.
Pornography has existed since the origins of the United States, and has become more readily accessible in the 21st century. Advanced by technological development, it has gone from a hard-to-find "back alley" item, beginning in 1969 with Blue Movie by Andy Warhol, the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984) and home video, to being more available in the country and later, starting in the 1990s, readily accessible to nearly anyone with a computer or other device connected to the Internet. The U.S. has no current plans to block explicit content from children and adolescents, as many other countries have planned or proceeded to do.
Edel SE & Co. KGaA is a German independent media company based in Hamburg. As a label and publishing group, it also operates marketing and sales for artists and smaller music labels. The repertoire of the Edel labels includes dance, rock and pop music to classical music and a children's catalogue. In addition to the development and marketing of music, the group also deals with the production, logistics and distribution of CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, and books at the production site of the subsidiary optimal media GmbH in Röbel/Müritz as well as with services in the online and book business.
Ann Summers is a British multinational retailer company specialising in sex toys and lingerie, with 80 high street stores in the UK, Ireland, and the Channel Islands. In 2000, Ann Summers acquired the Knickerbox brand, a label with an emphasis on more comfortable and feminine underwear, while the Ann Summers-labelled products tend to be more erotic in style. The chain had an annual turnover of £117.3 million in 2007–2008.
Beate Uhse-Rotermund was a German pilot, entrepreneur and sex pioneer. She was one of the very few female stunt pilots in Germany in the 1930s. During World War II she ferried planes for the German Luftwaffe and after World War II she started a sex shop. The company she started, Beate Uhse AG, is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
The Beate Uhse Erotic Museum was a sex museum in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany.
Pornography has been defined as sexual subject material "such as a picture, video, or text" that is intended for sexual arousal. Intended for consumption by adults, pornography depictions have evolved from cave paintings, some forty millennia ago, to virtual reality presentations. A general distinction of adult content is made classifying it as pornography or erotica.
The Venus Award is a film award in the adult film industry presented yearly in Berlin since 1997 as part of the Venus Berlin trade fair, an international erotic trade festival, on the exhibition grounds at the Funkturm.
The Erotixxx Award is a film award in the adult film industry presented by German magazine eLine. Between 2005 and 2009, the award was presented yearly as part of the Venus Berlin trade fair, an international trade festival of the erotic. The Erotixxx Award was the successor to the Venus Award, which had been presented until 2004 and then resumed in 2010. Starting in 2010, the Erotixxx Award became a part of the erotic fair eroFame in Hannover and, since 2011, it has only awarded innovative products, toys, and companies. During the Venus Berlin years, prizewinners were chosen by a jury and by a ballot of webmasters or registered users of several German erotic websites. Since that time, they have been chosen by the editorial staff of eLine and EAN.
Larry Flynt Publications, or LFP, Inc. is an American business enterprise that owns, manages and operates the adult entertainment businesses founded by American entrepreneur Larry Flynt. Founded in 1976, two years after Flynt began publishing Hustler magazine, LFP was originally established to serve as the legal business entity i.e. parent company of this magazine.
In the United Kingdom, pornography is regulated by a variety of laws, regulations, judicial processes, and voluntary schemes. Pornographic material generally has to be assessed by regulators or courts to determine its legality. British censorship laws with regard to pornography have often been some of the most restrictive in Western Europe.
The sex industry consists of businesses that either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment. The industry includes activities involving direct provision of sex-related services, such as prostitution, strip clubs, host and hostess clubs and sex-related pastimes, such as pornography, sex-oriented men's magazines, women's magazines, sex movies, sex toys and fetish or BDSM paraphernalia. Sex channels for television and pre-paid sex movies for video on demand, are part of the sex industry, as are adult movie theaters, sex shops, peep shows, and strip clubs. The sex industry employs millions of people worldwide, mainly women. These range from the sex worker, also called adult service provider (ASP), who provides sexual services, to a multitude of support personnel.
Nordic Adult Entertainment is a Danish/Swedish company producing erotic adult film.
Sedo is a domain name and website marketplace and domain parking provider based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Cologne, Germany. The company is a subsidiary of United Internet.
Aylo is a Canadian multinational adult entertainment conglomerate owned by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. It is primarily involved in internet pornography, operating a number of video sharing websites, and pornographic film studios such as Brazzers, Digital Playground, Men.com, Reality Kings, Sean Cody, and WhyNotBi.com, among others. Aylo's headquarters are located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but the company's corporate structure is divided among entities domiciled in a number of other countries.
Pornography in Germany is legal, with the exceptions of zoophilic and child pornography. Akin to many other countries, child pornography in Germany is illegal. German prosecution authorities and legal bodies of Germany's 16 states handle the definition of child pornography very differently, but all 16 states ban child and zoophilic pornography, and it is illegal to watch or access any pornography for minors under 18 in Germany. The German Edathy affair of 2013/14 following the neglected cooperation of BKA within the Canadian child pornography uncoverings gave way for new legislation procedures in parliament to define the status of either posing or exhibitive pictures of minors. New laws were still in parliamentary debating as lately as 19 December 2014.
Beate-Uhse.TV is a private television station in Germany belonging to the Beate Uhse sex shop franchise, dedicated to softcore pornography. It is operated by tmc Content Group GmbH based in Berlin. Beate-Uhse.TV broadcasts daily from 20:15 to 5:45.
