] It is estimated that Americans now spend somewhere around
] $10 billion a year on adult entertainment, which is as
] much as they spend attending professional sporting
] events, buying music or going out to the movies.

“It employs an excess of 12,000 people in California. And in California alone, we pay over $36 million in taxes every year. So it's a very sizeable industry,” says Bill Lyon, a former lobbyist for the defense industry.

Then there are the big hotel chains: Hilton, Marriot, Hyatt, Sheraton and Holiday Inn, which all offer adult films on in-room pay-per-view television systems. And they are purchased by a whopping 50 percent of their guests, accounting for nearly 70 percent of their in-room profits. One hotel owner said, "We have to have it, our guests demand it.”

Very interesting 60 minutes article on the state of the porn industry. Brings up an interesting point concerning obscenity prosecutions: What community standard do you apply when the porn doesn't make it to the community-- ala individual distribution?

And beyond that, considering something like 70-80% of americans partake in porn, what are the current community standards anyway?

CBS News | Porn In The U.S.A. | November 25, 2003 12:55:49