Porn Tapes Prohibited in Germany!

I'm being a bit overly dramatic, it's true, but this is what I learned yesterday at the Second Berlin Porn Film Festival, attending a very interesting panel discussion of female porn directors. Given that no one can prove on-line that she is over 18, no one can buy porn tapes over the Internet, by German law. This includes imports.

Now, the session moderator, to be precise (he being German and precision being a national obsession here), did indicate two exceptions: 1) one can purchase as the owner of a company (as one must be at least 18 to set up a business), or 2) there seems to be a porn reseller with a system of verifying one's age in person -- apparently someone shows up to card you. Wouldn't that be fun?
> Ring, ring (doorbell).
> Scantily dressed brunette opens door to reveal studly delivery man.
> "Umm, ma'am, could you just prove your age before I release this dirty movie to you?"
> "Well, sailor, what are you suggesting, show-and-tell?"
Hmmm, I'm starting to see some plot potential here, what do you say? Should I pitch it to one of the women on closing night tonight?

Needless to say, the women filmmakers felt this severely impacts their sales in this great country, as most women are not inclined to go to some seedy sex shop populated by even seedier men to purchase their porn. There's one right on the corner of my local U-Bahn stop, the outside painted entirely in red with nifty white silhouettes of naked women (á la silvery trucker mud-flaps in the U.S.). Nice.

To be fair, I've been to Beate Uhse shops, both the huge famous one at Zoologischer Garten (West Berlin) and at an airport in South Germany. They are clean, well-lighted places to buy porn. But Good Vibes they are not, although now I'm wondering if I should actually launch an investigation and see what happens if I ask for female-friendly or female-directed movies. Stayed tuned...