Dial-A-Porn

Yet one more way porn is good for society...it's on the cutting edge of technology.

Pornographers thinking small
By Sinead Carew, Reuters
January 31, 2008

NEW YORK -- Size matters in pornography, except when it comes to tiny mobile phone screens, the next frontier for erotica.

If the adult entertainment industry has its way, Americans will soon get a choice of free porn on cellphones, or at least some photographs of good-looking girls in bikinis.

Unlike in Europe, mobile porn has yet to take off in North America as carriers have been afraid of offending political and religious groups and parents concerned about children being exposed to adult content.

That might change this year as phone companies plan to relax control on their networks to allow a wider variety of gadgets and services, while introducing tools to shield minors. More advanced phones with better Web browsers like Apple Inc's iPhone also offer higher quality pictures and video.

"It will be impossible to stop the adult business exploitation of mobile entertainment," said Gregory Piccionelli, a lawyer specializing in adult entertainment at legal firm Piccionelli & Sarno.

He predicted that U.S. consumers might soon be offered free porn on mobile phones alongside paid services like live video or "adult dates," a term for prearranged sex with strangers.
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surfeit of free online porn sites has cut into profits that have come mainly from DVDs, videotapes and pay-per-view or subscription-based websites.

To survive, adult entertainers need to be on top of phone trends, said Jay Grdina, president of adult entertainment provider ClubJenna Inc., which he co-founded with his then-wife, world-famous porn star Jenna Jameson.

"If you don't evolve you're going to die. . . . We need to make sure we're ready," Grdina said in an interview before his keynote speech at this week's conference, where adult entertainment and technology companies are brainstorming over how to make mobile porn a viable business.
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Pornography has made inroads on cellphones in Europe, where it was a $775-million industry in 2007 that is projected to grow to $1.5 billion by 2012, with the global market reaching $3.5 billion in 2010, according to Britain-based Juniper Research.

By comparison, North America generated just $26 million last year as carriers shied away from porn sales. Canada's second-largest phone company Telus Corp., for example, withdrew a mobile porn service last year after complaints from hundreds of customers and criticism from the Catholic Church.

Analyst Michael King of technology research firm Gartner said he expected mobile porn to be more prevalent around 2009, when there will be more phones that can display high-quality graphics.

Porn is "one of the bigger pieces of Web revenue. You would assume the natural extension would be on mobile," King said.

One of the little-known truths about technology is the fact that sex is usually on the cutting edge of advancement. Digital film, videotape, the internet, VHS over Beta, DVDs, film itself, (one of the first-ever motion pictures was in fact pornographic), all the way back to when the first men started painting on cave walls. If there's a technological advancement, porn is there to (pardon the term) exploit it.

The whole thing gives "phone sex" a new meaning, doesn't it?