I've recently been talking with a guy who is really against art theft, myspace-style photos and cell phone pics, and porn on DA.

Now, I disagree with his take on porn on DA, and to be honest, he kinds of contradicts himself. There's out and out porn, of no value other than masturbatory, and there's erotica, designed mainly to evoke an emotional response, showing what is in the artist's eye of beauty, along with arousal. The problem is that there is a razor-thin line dividing the two. An artist needs to stay fresh, keep pushing the envelope, and to do that he'll have to cross a line or two. If that artist specializes in erotica, he's going to cross the line into porno territory. This WILL offend people, it will go beyond set boundaries, such as decency guidelines set by site moderators. This is the heart of alot of problems here on DA. There are some who take a hard edge on this issue, forgetting sometimes that for a real artist, it's for the sake of his art. He can no more reign in his eye than he can stop breathing. On the other hand, sometimes it's hard to tell where art ends and porn begins. Perhaps a solution to this would be to somehow create a partition on the site, where artists could send their work they know rides that line, and those who don't want to see it don't have to. Of course there would still be those who try and buck that system, just like those who post pieces that belong in the scraps category on the main line. But it could help...
Hentai Foundry has search filters a viewer can set so they don't have to see the categories of work they don't like. Perhaps the DA could include that kind of filtering in the site...

On to art theft. To claim another's work as your own is wrong. I've seen some here who try to claim that they are creating a hommage to certain models, celebrities, or artists, but that really doesn't belong here. There are sites where you can do that, without offending others' sensibilities. When you post something here under your username, you are the one collecting all the praise for another's work. You should be ashamed of yourself.

There are some who are trying to become artists in their own right who need the experience. If this is the case, there are plenty of artists here who provide stock photos, posted so you can put your spin on it and show it off. Look them up, use their stuff, give them the proper credit, and improve your eye. Plenty do it here, and are appreciated. You don't need to "import" ripped off photos from somewhere else, trying to claim it as yours. That is really plagiarism, and it's not right.

On to the myspace and cell phone stuff. Any artist starts from simple beginnings. A pencil/pen artist starts with stick figures and simple shapes. Painters start similarly. Photographers start with simple photographs. To judge a photographer as a displaced myspacer is not right. It is impossible to see what another artist's eye sees from the outside. Art snobs would tell you differently, always trying to tell you what the artist is "trying to say" with his art. One looking in from the outside cannot truly tell the difference between a budding artist and a myspacer looking for a new myspace, unless there is absolutely no evolution over a long span of time. And honestly, who can judge that but the artist themself? Once again, perhaps a partition for beginning photographers AND the myspacers to post their photos where all don't have to see them on the main line would be appropriate.

You see folks, art is beautiful and enriching because it is a fluid entity. It ebbs and flows within the artist, outside of norms and convention, and for one to stifle the art because it doesn't agree with your standards is wrong. We as artists have to find a middle ground where we can co-exist, or we'll always be at odds...