International Law

According to Google Analytics, one of the most common search terms that lead people to this blog is "Porn 2.0".  That is because of these two posts from a few years back: Porn 2.0 in April 2007 and Porn 2.0 on the rise in January 2008.  So it is with a mix of trepidation (as well as secret delight that this provocatively titled post might also generate traffic in the future), that I draw your attention to this post on GigaOM that explains why porn and the iPad are key for HTML5:

Apple?s move to ban Adobe Flash from its iOS has opened a huge window for any technology that can deliver a top-notch multimedia experience on the iPad and other Apple gadgets. And as I discuss in my weekly column over at GigaOM Pro, porn purveyors are starting to tilt the balance in favor of HTML5.

Increasingly, it looks like HTML5 will inherit the torch from Flash. The emergence of HTML5 is largely being spurred by the iPad and its big, high-resolution screen, which offers a far more immersive (read: porn-friendly) experience than any handset can deliver. So adult sites are moving quickly to re-encode their video content for the new, video-friendly device. YouPorn.com announced a few weeks ago that it?s targeting iPad users by re-encoding its entire video archive in HTML5. Pink Visual has launched a pair of sites (barely safe for work) that offer HTML5 video content for both straight and gay consumers, and the gay site RocketTube was iPad-ready before the device even came to market.

Mobile porn has never found much of a market here in the U.S. thanks to carrier prohibitions and handsets that make for poor platforms to view it. The rise of the iPad will change that, though, providing an easy way for users to access adult content online wherever they are. And there?s no question that demand for online porn is immense: the worldwide adult web industry has an estimated value of $37.2 billion. The rise of the iPad will only fuel that fire.

Read it here.  I remember reading somewhere years ago that the adult entertainment industry generally leads the way for new technologies before they are embraced by the mainstream, and it appears that the early embrace of HTML5, even if fueled by the success of the iPad, is another example of the adult entertainment industry being just ahead of the curve.