How do you create an environment that attracts erotic artists, while fulfilling the following two conditions:
1) There are to be no unreasonable restrictions on the accepted forms of expression.
2) It must not become a haven for porn addicts.
As an erotic artist myself, some of my work, and some of the work I'd like to do, is such that it would not unreasonably be deemed "pornographic" in content (regardless of intent). To outlaw pornographic material would be to put an unreasonable restriction on my expression. The problem here is to avoid hypocrisy in allowing porn yet not allowing the environment to degenerate into a den of pornography.
What's the difference between porn and pornographic art? For an individual piece, I don't think there is any meaningful way to tell that difference. But there is certainly a difference between my body of work and the body of work that a pornographer produces (amateur or otherwise). The majority of my work is not explicitly pornographic - this is a matter of proportion. And my work, whether pornographic or not, possesses intent above and beyond the seeking of sexual gratification (even if that is a primary component of the intent - so long as it is not exclusive).
My body of work is clearly distinguished from a pornographer's - at least as I see it, and this is often a matter of taste and opinion. Let us imagine the case of an artist whose work is predominantly pornographic, and yet still possesses something above and beyond porn that makes it worthy of being called art. How can we tell, and how do we avoid discriminating against this artist, while not encouraging others who lack the added artistic element? And how do we deal with self-proposed artists whose work is apparently indistinguishable from porn? What about the amateur pornographer who insists that his porn is artistic? We can't simply take a person at his or her word, or we'd be opening the floodgates to exactly what we want to keep out.
The only way I see this working is on a by-invitation system, as much as I hate the idea of creating a system where you have to be evaluated/know the right people/have experience in the business to get in. But it seems like the only solution, and shouldn't there at least be that solution, if no better one? So I ask you to point me in the direction of the secret global community of erotic artists so I may present myself to them and ask for their approval, and acceptance into their privileged club.
I guess an alternative solution would be to just create a porn site that doesn't advertise itself as such, like flickr has done with images (though not videos). Have you ever seen one of those? I imagine they'd be hard to find, since they'd look just like other non-porn-friendly sites...
