Disclaimer
I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. This is for educational purposes only. The very minimal sections taken from this contract are being used under the Fair Use Act, which covers criticism, commentary, and educational uses of written work.
If the agency whose contract is sampled in this post wishes the samples to be taken down (and replaced with re-written summaries), please use our contact form, verify your identity and ownership of this agency, and we’ll take the images down immediately.
Predatory Contracts – Content Ownership
There are many things to look for in an OnlyFans agency contract–there are so many ways you can be taken advantage of. And you will be taken advantage of. The big ones I hear about the most are: term (length) of contract/exiting a contract and content ownership. This post is about the latter, using a real contract from a real OnlyFans management agency.
One of the things I always found valuable in deciphering contracts (or philosophy texts in college) was having a dictionary on hand and a notebook. I would rewrite each sentence in my own words… once I knew what the original words meant. (Thanks, OED!) Doing that helped me read things like this and make sense of them.
A contract, at the bare minimum, is a piece of paper that outlines an agreement between two or more parties. If part of that agreement comes into question, through breaking the contract (or otherwise), each party gets a lawyer to interpret the contract in their favor and argue that interpretation in front of a judge.
All of that is to say, that none of this is black and white. One lawyer can read this and interpret it one way, another lawyer another way, a judge yet another way. It’s the base of what we start arguing on… and how I read this is not how someone else would read this.
While there is more to this contract than these bits on content-ownership, I found that, in reading it, its biggest act of predation was around content and image. Let’s begin.
3.1 above allows the agency to use the model’s… everything. Which it needs to do, to be fair. They need to post pictures and videos and promote livestreams and audio clips to do their job. They need to be able to edit videos, they need to be able to make cover images and memes and so on. This first couple sentences lets them do that. (Though maybe don’t use “exploit” in a contract in the adult industry, like c’mon now.)
The things we need to note here:
- The model “unconditionally and irrevocably” (first line) grants the agency all these rights. That means without conditions, no take-backsies. They have rights, maybe forever, to do all the things this paragraph lists, globally.
- That very last sentence. Upon signing this contract, the model is giving the agency ownership of all of their social media accounts. One can very much argue that OnlyFans is a social media account.
So what this could mean, depending on the lawyer and the judge (and how that judge feels about people who make porn), that they can forever use all of you (voice, video, image, content, bio, etc) to promote your OnlyFans… that they own. Forever. You don’t need to be involved, around, or even doing business with them for them to keep running your OnlyFans and all your socials.
Don’t worry, it gets worse.
The agency can take anything the model gives them and alter it in any way they see fit. “Oh, that’s fine, they’ll make me hotter or shop out the zits on my ass,” you say. We have AI. They can turn your voice (which they have the rights to) and your face (also have the rights to, unconditionally and irrevocably) and suddenly you’re doing things on the internet that you didn’t do in real life, saying things you would never say. (Have you seen Cam? Like that.)
They don’t need approval from you to do this. You don’t get a say in what they do. That’s in this paragraph, where it talks about sole discretion.
Right after that bit? Whatever they do make for you that you actually like? You can only use it if it’s associated with them. Ten years from now, you want to share that sexy pic with your name in a cool-ass font on your socials to promote some “check out my retro videos!” thing? You can’t. They made it.
And after that? They’ve let you know they’ll absolutely DMCA you if you do.
Moving on through this capitalistic hellscape, here’s 3.3.
You cannot work with any other company that owns any products that compete with any of this agency’s “products.” (Having googled them, I’m not sure what those products are??) They elaborate on this by saying that includes any company that (to rephrase) makes, sells, distributes, or promotes… images. So… anything on the internet that you’d ever want to use.
Now, what I absolutely fucking want to tear my hair out over is that if you make any content outside of the scope of what this agency tells you to make… they still own it. And if you post it anywhere (where they don’t make money off it), they’ll DMCA it. You’ve given all control of your online life to them.
Also, let’s talk about this. What is “content” here? If you’re uploading videos of you and your family having a BBQ on your personal social media (which is set to public, perhaps) that is content. Where is the line of their ownership of your digital life, and do you really want to find out?
Last thing in this paragraph. Your content is up for as long as they want. See, you gave them ownership of all your social media and your OnlyFans in 3.1, along with an unconditional and irrevocable license to your… everything. You can end this contract, you can retire, you can get hit by a bus, and they can still run your OnlyFans.
This is just kicking someone when they’re down. This agency can plaster your face/body/voice on whatever “product” they are making and you own nothing of it. There’s no royalties. There’s no approval of what picture they used of you and what they did to modify it (because you gave that up in 3.2) or what they put it on.
But the bananas part here is that if they have any concerns that you might try to claim ownership, you have to create the documentation to transfer said ownership (which means hiring and paying a lawyer yourself) or, if you don’t have the funds for your own lawyer, you have to use their lawyer to draft a contract to release that ownership.
Nothing could possibly go wrong there. I mean, that lawyer is probably the same one that drafted this contract. Toooootally fine.
Predatory Contracts – Termination
As we continue this educational romp through a contract, we need to look at what happens to content-ownership once the relationship with the agency is ended.
Last sentence of 5.1? All rights given in section 3 shall be kept by the agency, even after your business relationship is ended. Yup, those are forever. Ten years from now, that video of you fucking that one guy will be for sale or posted on the wall of “your” OnlyFans. It’ll also be on PornHub and every other tube site out there, and you won’t be able get it taken down because you don’t own it.
Final Thoughts
Again, I am not a lawyer. I’ve never been to law school (though I once walked around Yale). I probably got many things wrong in my reading and interpretation.
So this post is not legal advice. It was an attempt at education and criticism on how incredibly predatory some contracts can be, and what to look for when you have a contract in front of you and a man telling you he can make you eighty bazillion dollars in a month, fr fr no cap. (I’m in my 40s, did I do that right? Probably not.)
If you do not feel properly equipped to read and understand a contract, I highly recommend using ContractsCounsel to find a lawyer to review it for you. It will cost actual money, but I’d personally rather spend a couple hundred getting a contract read and amended than lose control over my image.
If you are reading this and kicking yourself because you’re already trapped in a contract with a shit agency, we have a couple law firms listed in our Resources section who have experience dealing with agency contracts like this one.
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