The depiction of erotic behaviour intended to cause sexual excitement. The word *orn originally signified any work of art or literature depicting the life of prostitutes. Though *ornography is clearly ancient in origin, its early history is obscure because it was customarily not thought worthy of transmission or preservation. Nevertheless, in the artwork of many historic societies, including ancient India, ancient Greece, and Rome, erotic imagery was commonplace and often appeared in religious contexts. The Art of Love, by Ovid, is a treatise on seduction and sensual arousal. The invention of printing led to the production of ambitious works of *ornographic writing intended to entertain as well as to arouse. In 18th-century Europe, *ornography became a vehicle for social and political protest through its depiction of the misdeeds of royalty and other aristocrats, as well as those of clerics, a traditional target. The development of photography and motion pictures in the 19th and 20th centuries contributed greatly to the proliferation of pornography, as did the advent of the Internet in the late 20th century. During the 20th century, restrictions on pornography were relaxed throughout much of Europe and North America, though regulations remained strict in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
As of July 2003, there were 260 million pages of pornography online, an increase of 1800% since 1998. *orn amounts to about 7% of the 3.3 billion Web pages indexed by Google
Internet users who access adult websites spend an average of 73 min. per month there, but that doesn't include time spent on amateur sites
Americans rent upwards of 800 million *ornographic videos and DVDs a year, compared with 3.6 billion non *ornographic videos. Nearly 1 in 5 rentals is a *orn flick
Hollywood produces 400 feature films a year. The *orn industry churns out 11,000
One in 4 American adults surveyed in 2002 admitted to seeing an X-rated movie in the past year
The average actor pay is between $400 and $2500 a video shoot
*orn is big business in the USA. Ten Billion in Revenues
