Newsday runs an AP wirestory on the demise of the printed pornographic magazine in the age of the internet (With Internet competition, adult magazines see circulation woes). Obviously, the availability of porn via the internet is having an effect on the availability of printed porn - though Larry Flynt's quote "I'm not going to say it's going to become extinct because some people will always want to feel that magazine in their hands" brings up some disturbing imagery.

Techdirt makes the good point that pornographers often lead the way in adopting and adapting to new technologies - perhaps this is another example of such evolution in progress (Internet Competition Killing Off Adult Magazines). Videotape, of course, essentially killed off the adult theater - though it didn't kill off movie theaters in general, so the analogy isn't inexact.

One thing the article doesn't go into is the prevalence of pornographic piracy, which is likely as prevalent as music file sharing. No blaming the failure of Screw Magazine on piracy from Al Goldstein, for example. Instead, Goldstein says, "we [porn magazine publishers] are an anachronism; we are dinosaurs; we are elephants going to the bone cemetery to die. ... The delivery system has changed, and we have to change with it if we want to survive."

Of course, there is still old media thinking in the case of some internet pornographers. According to an AP wirestory in USA Today, a pornographic website is suing two models for violating a non-compete agreement when the models quit one website to pose for another (Internet adult business in legal battle with former models).