Vivid Entertainment Group, purveyors of such famous films as “Bad Wives” and “Generation Sex,” recently completed an agreement with CinemaNow to offer 30 downloadable videos for about $19.95 per film starting May 8th.

Each download, which can be burned to DVD and shown on a TV, will include everything that is available on the original DVDs, including artwork, scene navigation, bonus material and deleted scenes, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The porn business has been known for quickly adopting new technology faster than the mainstream entertainment industry. Just as it became one of the first industries to profit from VCRs, porn was also one of the first to derive real profits from selling content over the Internet.

Make no mistake about it – people will pay to see other people do things they wish they could do if only they got out more often.

“The simple fact is porn is an early adopter of new media,” Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future, told the Times. “If you’re trying to get something established … you’re going to privately and secretly hope and pray that the porn industry likes your medium.”

Of course, both porn and mainstream Hollywood share some of the same problems. Both have suffered from copyright infringement, with porn taking a big hit from file sharing way before feature-length films started appearing on peer-to-peer networks. Plus, the World Wide Web made it possible for anyone to become a pornographer, and the rise of amateur porn sites did cut into professional porn’s profit margins.

But the pornography business also recognizes the Net as a solution for two of the biggest problems facing the industry – distribution and privacy. You won’t find any Vivid DVDs on Wal-Mart shelves, and downloading something like “Nurse Orgy” in the privacy of one’s own home is probably preferable to visiting the local smut merchant.

With Vivid providing something legitimate film fans already want, namely the ability to download, burn and then play the resulting discs on TV, you can bet Hollywood will be watching the entire Vivid/CinemaNow hookup very closely. For professional reasons, of course.