Censoring the Moving Image

From its birth in the dying days of the nineteenth century to its hi-tech proliferation today, cinema has been a mote in the eye of the censors.  Its popular appeal and widespread dissemination made it an obvious and easy target: it was widely accused of corrupting morals, spreading dangerous ideas and having a particularly malign effect on children and members of the 'lower orders.'
 
The spread of new forms of communications technology, such as DVD and the Internet, has democratized t…