CYBERSPACE—The decision to create Come4 is based on the belief that pornography is a $100 billion business worldwide. With that [wildly inflated] number in mind, the two founders, Ricky and Marco, had the brilliant idea to make a website that features "porn with heart" and channels some of that money to charitable causes, thereby making something good out of bad.
According to the two wild and crazy (but good-hearted) guys, "'Sex,' is the top word searched on Internet. With nearly 100 Billion of yearly revenues, the porn industry is one of the greatest markets online. Unfortunately, it is also one of the less ethical and transparent ones. Many people consuming free pornography think that the only risk they may run into is that of being discovered by others. This idea, however, is not just naïve, but also wrong, for the current model of consuming online sexual contents has many negative implications for all of us." [bold in original.]
What sort of negative implications? "First," say the boys, "it constantly threatens our rights as consumers. As you know, people consuming free porn are often exploited in a way that would be intolerable in other contexts. Have you ever received an 'enlarge-your-penis email?' Second, the prevailing model is finalized to business, and thus it naturally and systematically aims at subjugating our sexual imagination to marketing standards.
"As a result," they add, "instead of reflecting the natural plurality of human sexuality, today online pornography fosters a one-dimensional perspective that is often fake, violent, macho-centered, and in many cases barely legal."
The solution? "We believe that we, as a self-aware community, can do better than this, and that time has come to rethink critically the relationship of on-line pornography and society. Image for one second that 1 percent of the total revenue derived from this gigantic market are used to support charitable and ethically driven causes; then think about the 50 percent. Provided no one is harmed and that everything is legal, is there any reason why part of these revenues cannot be used for better ends?"
Never mind that established members of the entertainment industry regularly donate to charities throughout the year. That fact should never get in the way of, as Come4 puts it, a "new sexual revolution!"
The project has three stated goals:
1. Promote a positive, secular, liberal and pluralistic ideal of thuman sexuality
2. Respect consumers of online sexual content.
3. Support people, ethical causes and non-profit foundations with provoking ideas.
It works like this:
a. People can upload, watch, share and rate self-made erotic porn and sexual contents
b. Users can interact together, create groups, and win and distribute awards
c. Every content get associated with a charitable or ethically inspired cause
d. Professionals, sex-toys sellers, performers, etc. can upload their sponsored contents; or purchase advertisement at the end/beginning of other videos. Get associated with a charitable or ethically inspired cause
e. Money generated from the advertisement linked to a content goes to the cause with which such content has been associated in the first place
In all honesty, we can't wait to see how Come4—which if funding comes through via Ulule, plans to launch sometime in early 2013—pans out.
Photo: by Alessandra Tecla Gerevini, courtesy of Come4.
