Debate is growing in India over whether porn should be legalized, considering the accessibility of adult material on the Internet, a growing underground market of adult films and videos in the country's capital, and a rise in digital morphing of images into adult-oriented images, according to a newspaper report.
India Internet law expert Pavan Duggal told The Times of India that "It's time to kick up a debate whether porn should be legalized or not."
Indian novelist Shobhaa De agreed. "People all over the world have learned to live with it; it's high time we Indians – especially [celebrities] – need to do the same." The celebrities reference alluded to the proliferation of native celebrities’ images being digitally altered into pornographic ones.
"As long as we do not intrude on anyone's privacy, watching porn should have nothing to do with the law," an Indian model, Upen Patel, told the paper. She also said she didn't disapprove of digital morphing. "I don't really care if one morphs my image on the Internet. Morphing is there to be enjoyed ... that's it!"
"Law or no law, we have to live with morphing," filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt told The Times. "If we have a 19th century law to deal with a 21st century issue, it won't be long before 'privacy' loses its place in the dictionary. The state will be powerless, the MMS menace is just the beginning."
The Times said legalizing porn makes economic sense for India, considering its success elsewhere. Citing, among others, AVN publisher Paul Fishbein, there are 800 million adult video and DVD rentals a year in the U.S. and 200 adult entertainment companies, not to mention adult actors like Jenna Jameson becoming major stars and even mainstream celebrities.
A theater and advertising worker, Alyque Padamsee, told the paper India "is the land of the erotic" but that the lone kind of porn that needs to be stopped is child porn in all forms.
