A pornographic film is a film that seeks to create the sexual arousal of viewers and their erotic satisfaction, usually by including eroticly stimulating material such as nudity and the explicit portrayal of sexual activity. Pornographic films can be sold or rented out on video or DVD, shown through Internet and special channels and pay-per-view on cable and satellite, and in adult theaters.
Pornographic films appeared shortly after the creation of the motion picture in the early 1900s. Pornographic films have much in common with other forms of pornography and erotica.
Throughout its history, the movie camera has been used for pornography, but for most of that time pornographic films were typically available only by underground distribution, for projection at home or in private clubs and also night cinemas. Only in the 1970s were pornographic films semi-legitimized; by the 1980s, pornography on home video achieved wider distribution. The rise of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s similarly changed distribution of pornography, and furthermore complicated legal prosecution of obscenity.