[Wikipedia-l] Re: Two issues here: what is legal to have on the server and what is legal in the user's nation

[Brion Vibber]

Je Ĵaŭdo 22 Majo 2003 09:24, Jimmy Wales skribis:
> Kurt Jansson wrote:
> > BTW, is it just prudery that I seldom see nudity in american
> > movies, or are there laws against it? If so, this might become a
> > similar problem.
>
> America is the porn capital of the world, so I'm not sure what kind
> of movies you're watching.  Other than broadcast television and
> radio, which are censored through the means of licensing, there are
> basically no restrictions on nudity in movies in the United States.

The movie ratings system in the United States is a voluntary 
self-censorship regime managed by the industry itself. Nudity tends to 
be limited in general-release films (as opposed to porn ;) because 
we're also a country of prudes and puritans.

Nudity generally leads to an "R" (restricted) rating or higher, which 
severely limits the audience: most theaters and rental outlets, 
following the voluntary rating system, won't allow underage kids to see 
those films without adult supervision. Some outlets may not show 
R-rated films *at all,* particularly in small towns. Since the most 
profitable segment of the movie-going audience is teenage boys, an 
R-rated movie is less profitable than a film that can get a lower 
rating and receive a bigger share of the teen audience. So, the 
industry tends to favor films that don't quite hit the R.

See http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPAA_film_rating_system for more 
details on the ratings system and its history.

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)