Two California pornographers were indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury here on charges of selling obscene videotapes, including one that depicted women being raped and murdered.

Robert D. Zicari, 29, and his wife, Janet Romano, 26, whose Extreme Associates porn company was featured last year on PBS's "Frontline," are charged with distributing the videos through the mail and over the Internet in Western Pennsylvania.

Authorities said the case was the beginning of a crackdown on obscene material sold throughout the United States, and similar investigations are under way in West Virginia, South Carolina and elsewhere.

"It's not the first and it won't be the last," said Andrew Oosterbaan, chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section at the Justice Department. "In the next several months, you can expect there will be more indictments."

U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan and members of the Los Angeles Police Department said at a news conference on the North Side that federal obscenity laws had not been enforced throughout the 1990s.

Now they will be.

"This is not a case about limiting personal sexual conduct," Buchanan said. "It is not a case about banning sexually explicit material. This is a case about a pornography producer who has violated federal law. Extreme Associates has engaged in criminal conduct by producing and distributing material that violates our contemporary community standards."

The 10-count indictment set off a wave of anxiety at adult-entertainment companies in California's San Fernando Valley, considered the capital of the multibillion-dollar pornography industry in the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The investigation began with an LAPD probe, then gained steam after U.S. postal inspectors from Pittsburgh got involved after the "Frontline" show ran on Feb. 7, 2002.

Inspector Tom Clinton of the Pittsburgh office, an expert on child pornography and obscenity cases, was the lead agent who wrote the affidavit for a search warrant of Zicari's business in North Hollywood in April.

Buchanan also said her office had received many complaints about Extreme Associates. One of its largest distributors is located in the Pittsburgh area, she said.

The store hasn't been identified and its owners have not been charged, but Buchanan said they might be. Their customers are safe, however. Production and distribution of obscene material is against the law, but possession of it is not.

Zicari, who goes by the name Rob Black, takes pride in his nationwide porn business and has challenged law enforcement to shut him down.

On the company's Web site, Zicari posted a statement that said no one was arrested and that the company remained in business. He vowed to fight the government and wrote, "I definitely will not sit here and cry a bunch of tears."

On the "Frontline" segment, he defended his wares, which includes a video called "Forced Entry" which consists of episodes in which a woman is raped, beaten, spat on, degraded in every way and finally murdered.

When the interviewer asked him about an LAPD raid on a rival porn company, he boasted about his response.

"We've got tons of stuff they technically could arrest us for," he said. "And when this happened, I [went] on our Web site -- I made a big speech: 'I welcome the LAPD to come on down.' I said, 'Come and get me.' "

Now they have.

A trial could become a test of the U.S. Supreme Court's definition of obscenity.

In 1973, the high court said materials are obscene if the average person thinks they appeal to a prurient interest, that they are "patently offensive" and that they have no artistic merit.

Capt. Vance Proctor of the LAPD, who appeared yesterday with Buchanan, said the porn industry had changed since that definition was created and it was time to do something about it.

"In the last 10 or 12 years, we've seen the films slowly degrade so far below what the Supreme Court has established," he said. "If we don't prosecute this, it's just going to get worse."

Police and federal agents expect that Zicari and Romano, who calls herself Lizzy Borden, will not plead guilty as so many federal defendants do in pornography cases.

When asked on PBS about the content of his videos, he gave this explanation:

"When I was a child, my stepfather was an alcoholic. So I think I had deep issues, and this is kind of therapeutic for me, to take my aggression out on other people. So in a way, I'm exploiting people, taking all my inner demons and aggression out on them. But it's good for me. So I guess that's all that matters."

Zicari and Romano, who could not be reached for comment, are not in custody. Both will be arraigned before a federal magistrate in Pittsburgh on Aug. 27. They face maximum prison sentences of 50 years.

As part of the indictment, federal prosecutors have also moved to forfeit all of Extreme Associates' pornographic material and profits.