In light of the new iStock announcement, and the article our friends at Lucky Oliver have provided, I ran across this article which should spark a little bit of activity on the forum. I'm not sure the gloves are off at this point, but the article certainly stings a little bit...
http://www.stockasylum.com/text-pages/articles/a5wn122006-pro-am.htm
I think that the author is confusing a few issues:
1. It is normal convention to call someone a professional once they start making money.
2. There are various levels of professionals. You shouldn't compare a rookie to Ansel Adams.
3. There are also artists vs. professionals. A person could just be an artist (that doesn't make money), a professional (that doesn't really create any "art"), or both (a person that creates art and makes money from it).
So while I don't necessarily agree with all of Bryan's predictions, I don't have any problems with his statement about professionals vs. amateurs.