I presume that Joe Francis (the guy behind Girls Gone Wild) and Larry Flynt (founder of Hustler magazine) had their tongues firmly in cheek when they went to the government earlier this month, cap in hand, asking for a $5 billion bailout for the adult entertainment industry. (Mind you, government officials have undoubtedly already been personally propping up the sex trade for decades, but that’s another story.)

Francis and Flynt claim that the tanking economy has dampened America’s libido and the smut trade is taking the hit. Adult DVD sales are down 22 per cent. “With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind,” said Flynt. “It’s time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America.”

There is no doubt some truth behind this thinly disguised publicity stunt. Paying for sexual entertainment may certainly be less of a priority in hard economic times. However, Flynt’s claim about America’s limp libido is rather dubious. In fact, statistics traditionally show that birth rates tend to go up after times of recession, in part, because people have less money to spend on outside entertainment and have to stay home and make their own fun. The truth is, there are plenty of other factors to explain the decline of the traditional adult entertainment industry.

The biggest factor, of course, is changing technology. Adult entertainment has always been vulnerable to technological advances. Photography gave way to film, film to video and then eventually to DVD, and DVD to the Internet. The difference with Internet porn is that it changes the commercial playing field. Much as the music industry ambles like a lumbering dinosaur into the Internet age, the porn industry’s traditional model is also becoming outdated.

Frankly, I’m glad. Much like the porn industry, music was groundbreaking and dynamic in its early days but has devolved into an overly commercial, formulaic conveyer belt of overnight sensations and cookie-cutter music. The Internet has allowed musicians to once again dictate and hold the reins, making room for creativity, integrity and an ability to respond to what audiences want instead of the other way around.

Same with porn. I’ve long been tired of the predictability and lack of imagination in mainstream porn: encounter, clothes off, blowjob, cunnilingus, missionary intercourse, doggie-style, come-on-face. It’s pretty much the same every time, just different actors in different surroundings. It may do the trick but, surely, we can do better.

And people are, thanks to the Internet. In fact, I’m actually surprised DVD sales are only down 22 per cent. After all, why rent a DVD when you can stream porn on the internet in the privacy of your own home?

As sex writer Violet Blue said in her 2009 predictions: “[With] an entire industry built on DVD sales, consumers can now choose to watch porn they actually like (online). YouTube-style services such as YouPorn.com and xTube.com provide not just searchability, but free, authentic user-generated content. It looks like this might finally be the year the business model of churning out 12,000 DVDs a year packed with cookie-cutter starlets and boring sex-by-the-numbers plots is likely going to collapse like a house of tired old cards.”

It will be interesting to see how the mainstream companies adjust. Obviously, most of them are in on the online action. However, again, the Internet is a strange beast, and working business models are tough to nail down when people can make, post and get it for free.

Of course, while Internet porn allows for an increasing level of diversity, allowing innovative adult film artists like transsexual Buck Angels a much wider audience, the sheer volume available online is intimidating. Who has time to sort through it all? As a result, most of us default to the same stuff we’ve been spoon-fed for so long.

In his sexuality column for about.com, Cory Silverberg, co-owner of Toronto sex shop Come As You Are, predicts that, when it comes to the future of porn, “being able to take folks through the options and help them find something that doesn’t just do the trick but opens new doors will be a valuable service.” A sort of a porn concierge service if you will.

As for the future of traditional porn, I’d love to see these companies focus on quality rather than quantity, putting out fewer but better, more interesting titles, rather than churning out more of the same.

Sexual imagery will no doubt always be in demand. As a result, even without a bailout, I’m pretty sure the porn industry will survive in one form or other. How we “consume” porn is changing, however, and as a result, the porn industry has to change, too. And personally, I find that pretty exciting.