Studio Control of social media?

[Lucid1]

My long time model friend is in the planning stages of going independent, but last night we talked for a bit and her studio contract has some fine print that she wasn't totally clear about when she agreed to it. She is being told that all of her content videos, photo sets and social media accounts are "owned" by the studio and that she cannot use them in establishing her new client base, even under a new performer name. The point of contention she has with this is that the studio offered no assistance or promotion of the social media accounts she made, nor did they have any connection with the content that she, herself produced and uploaded to these sites using her own phone and other equipment that she has access to. The only link to the studio with the social media accounts is that she used her studio "name" on her Instagram account. All of the other social media accounts use a name that she chose, and is different from her studio account name. It seems that the provisions of the "model release" part of her contract gives them total control over all of the content that she produced, even on her own time with her own equipment, while she worked for this studio.

This seems a little far reaching and I wanted to ask if they are simply bluffing, or can studio contract terms like this(in Colombia) be this broadly defined and applied?

 

[inertvolcano]

Maybe there's a Colombian model here who has personally gone through this, but she needs to talk to a lawyer. I know it can be expensive but when it comes to legal matters you need to lawyer up and can't ask the internet. Law is way too tricky.

 

[Marceline]

I agree, her best bet would probably be to talk to a lawyer and let them read over the contract and advise her on what to do.

I’ve heard of studios basically owning the model’s brand, and their performer name, so if they leave the studio they can’t use the same stage name. And I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that some studios have it in their contract that you can’t work on the same site you worked on while at the studio for a certain amount of time (I think usually six months) after you stop working at the studio. But, I think it’s weird if she had a separate brand that was never affiliated with the studio (like she never filmed any content for that brand at the studio or used their equipment to film and they have no access to those accounts), they could legally own those accounts.

 

[Lucid1]

Maybe there's a Colombian model here who has personally gone through this, but she needs to talk to a lawyer. I know it can be expensive but when it comes to legal matters you need to lawyer up and can't ask the internet. Law is way too tricky.

Yeah, I was hoping that there are some other Colombian models here who have experience with this.

She is already working on generating new content, but she says that she doesn't want this new content to be made for naught if the studio can lay claim to it - since she is making it before she actually leaves.

 

[inertvolcano]

Yeah, I was hoping that there are some other Colombian models here who have experience with this.

She is already working on generating new content, but she says that she doesn't want this new content to be made for naught if the studio can lay claim to it - since she is making it before she actually leaves.

I understand. But what you're describing involves the specifics of her contract and it would be really iffy to give or take advice on it from someone who hasn't read the contract in full, and doesn't understand the law behind it. What you're describing does sound far reaching and like a bluff/bullying, but that doesn't mean the studio wouldn't try to press her on it and she would want a lawyer in her corner if they did that who could respond and tell them to fuck off (in legal terms.)

 

[Ozzie_]

Also it's not only in a cam situation., I have heard of companies in vanillaland owning an employee's output no matter where it was created whilst they were employed by that company. (computer programming for example)

Always pays to read the fine print on a contract.

 

[KingMarti]

My long time model friend is in the planning stages of going independent, but last night we talked for a bit and her studio contract has some fine print that she wasn't totally clear about when she agreed to it. She is being told that all of her content videos, photo sets and social media accounts are "owned" by the studio and that she cannot use them in establishing her new client base, even under a new performer name. The point of contention she has with this is that the studio offered no assistance or promotion of the social media accounts she made, nor did they have any connection with the content that she, herself produced and uploaded to these sites using her own phone and other equipment that she has access to. The only link to the studio with the social media accounts is that she used her studio "name" on her Instagram account. All of the other social media accounts use a name that she chose, and is different from her studio account name. It seems that the provisions of the "model release" part of her contract gives them total control over all of the content that she produced, even on her own time with her own equipment, while she worked for this studio.

This seems a little far reaching and I wanted to ask if they are simply bluffing, or can studio contract terms like this(in Colombia) be this broadly defined and applied?

These are standard terms for a studio contract from my experience (working as a model in a studio and working directly for the studio). The contract itself will say that they own the rights to the models likeness and image, so any content produced in the time she is working there is property of the studio. As far as I know that means since they own the rights to the content that they are free to continue selling it (or even make it freely available if they wish) if she leaves the studio (from my understanding). The contracts only cover earnings made while working for the studio so if they did decide to continue selling it she would not be able to claim a % of those sales (if she gets a lawyer and stuff then maybe she could) but its normally written to the effect of "while working at the studio you recieve x% of the total earnings"

Yeah, I was hoping that there are some other Colombian models here who have experience with this.

She is already working on generating new content, but she says that she doesn't want this new content to be made for naught if the studio can lay claim to it - since she is making it before she actually leaves.

If she films it before she leaves, technically the ownership is with the studio, but if she dosnt release it until after she leaves (provided she doesnt shoot it at the studio) they wouldn't be able to prove that it was shot in the time she was signed with them.

The likeness rights also extend outside of just camming, if she set up an onlyfans for example while working there and didnt tell them, then they would also own that and she would owe a % of her earnings, same with if she got a sponsorship on instagram to advertise something, % needs to be paid to the studio because they own the rights to her image.

Some studios will enforce it more than others but for content and social accounts they will normally retain the ownership and refuse to release them (They will sometimes instead just put a new model on that account to get them earning quicker) to you or offer you the ability to buy your account from them.

There are a lot of drawbacks to using a studio and knowing that people dont read contracts they (like everyone else) take that fact to their advantage.

If everything is on the up and up and there's no shitty practices in there, most companies (vanilla and cam) wont have an issue with you taking the contract to read over and getting back to them at a later date. If they dont let you take the contract with you to read or have someone look at then its usually a good sign that you shouldn't be signing that contract.

 

[KingMarti]

These are standard terms for a studio contract from my experience (working as a model in a studio and working directly for the studio). The contract itself will say that they own the rights to the models likeness and image, so any content produced in the time she is working there is property of the studio. As far as I know that means since they own the rights to the content that they are free to continue selling it (or even make it freely available if they wish) if she leaves the studio (from my understanding). The contracts only cover earnings made while working for the studio so if they did decide to continue selling it she would not be able to claim a % of those sales (if she gets a lawyer and stuff then maybe she could) but its normally written to the effect of "while working at the studio you recieve x% of the total earnings"

If she films it before she leaves, technically the ownership is with the studio, but if she dosnt release it until after she leaves (provided she doesnt shoot it at the studio) they wouldn't be able to prove that it was shot in the time she was signed with them.

The likeness rights also extend outside of just camming, if she set up an onlyfans for example while working there and didnt tell them, then they would also own that and she would owe a % of her earnings, same with if she got a sponsorship on instagram to advertise something, % needs to be paid to the studio because they own the rights to her image.

Some studios will enforce it more than others but for content and social accounts they will normally retain the ownership and refuse to release them (They will sometimes instead just put a new model on that account to get them earning quicker) to you or offer you the ability to buy your account from them.

There are a lot of drawbacks to using a studio and knowing that people dont read contracts they (like everyone else) take that fact to their advantage.

If everything is on the up and up and there's no shitty practices in there, most companies (vanilla and cam) wont have an issue with you taking the contract to read over and getting back to them at a later date. If they dont let you take the contract with you to read or have someone look at then its usually a good sign that you shouldn't be signing that contract.

Should also probably add: Not a lawyer, just some random guy who gets naked on the internet so don't assume it to be legal advice

 

[misterical]

I only know one model (in Colombia) who switched studio. When she left the old studio, she lost her model name, her streamate account and all of her videos that she had filmed while at that studio. Within a couple of weeks she was back on a new platform, with a new model name and a whole load of new content created by her new studio. I didn't ask her much about it but the impression I got was that she expected that to happen.

 

[Lucid1]

These are standard terms for a studio contract from my experience (working as a model in a studio and working directly for the studio). The contract itself will say that they own the rights to the models likeness and image, so any content produced in the time she is working there is property of the studio. As far as I know that means since they own the rights to the content that they are free to continue selling it (or even make it freely available if they wish) if she leaves the studio (from my understanding). The contracts only cover earnings made while working for the studio so if they did decide to continue selling it she would not be able to claim a % of those sales (if she gets a lawyer and stuff then maybe she could) but its normally written to the effect of "while working at the studio you recieve x% of the total earnings"

If she films it before she leaves, technically the ownership is with the studio, but if she dosnt release it until after she leaves (provided she doesnt shoot it at the studio) they wouldn't be able to prove that it was shot in the time she was signed with them.

The likeness rights also extend outside of just camming, if she set up an onlyfans for example while working there and didnt tell them, then they would also own that and she would owe a % of her earnings, same with if she got a sponsorship on instagram to advertise something, % needs to be paid to the studio because they own the rights to her image.

Some studios will enforce it more than others but for content and social accounts they will normally retain the ownership and refuse to release them (They will sometimes instead just put a new model on that account to get them earning quicker) to you or offer you the ability to buy your account from them.

There are a lot of drawbacks to using a studio and knowing that people dont read contracts they (like everyone else) take that fact to their advantage.

If everything is on the up and up and there's no shitty practices in there, most companies (vanilla and cam) wont have an issue with you taking the contract to read over and getting back to them at a later date. If they dont let you take the contract with you to read or have someone look at then its usually a good sign that you shouldn't be signing that contract.

I'm surprised to hear all of this. I didn't know "likeness" rights could be claimed in perpetuity as you seem to indicate.

And for the record, I wasn't posting this in order to get legal advice to give to her about her situation, but more along the lines of gaining knowledge about studio contracts in general, and whether the points in my OP are "general" practices used by studios in Colombia.

I guess she will just have to be extra careful with her new content and the manner she decides to post/release it.

 

[Lucid1]

I only know one model (in Colombia) who switched studio. When she left the old studio, she lost her model name, her streamate account and all of her videos that she had filmed while at that studio. Within a couple of weeks she was back on a new platform, with a new model name and a whole load of new content created by her new studio. I didn't ask her much about it but the impression I got was that she expected that to happen.

I guess switching studios might be a bit different than leaving one and attempting to go independent?

I understand the point that the studio retains ownership rights to all content and her brand(likeness and name)that she made using their facilities and equipment, but that's why I asked about the social media stuff, where they had no involvement with any of the content that she created to put there - under a different name even.

 

[KingMarti]

I'm surprised to hear all of this. I didn't know "likeness" rights could be claimed in perpetuity as you seem to indicate.

And for the record, I wasn't posting this in order to get legal advice to give to her about her situation, but more along the lines of gaining knowledge about studio contracts in general, and whether the points in my OP are "general" practices used by studios in Colombia.

I guess she will just have to be extra careful with her new content and the manner she decides to post/release it.

As far as I know the rights to a models likeness end when the contract ends but all the content that was made under that contract is property of the studio as the model has already been paid for it.

I know you wernt asking for legal advice, but theres always that 1 person somewhere who is like "but this person told me" so thought it was worth pointing out, not a lawyer, professional naked person that has just dealt with these contracts a lot.

Unless the studio offers her something she cant get herself, I would recommend not working for a studio, I would always recommend going indie, from my experience studios dont do the work to make their cut a fair cut.

If she does go to another studio, something she will want to look for in her contract is that they have written what she can expect of them (what they are going to do in return for the % they take).

 

[Ozzie_]

And for the record, I wasn't posting this in order to get legal advice to give to her about her situation, but more along the lines of gaining knowledge about studio contracts in general, and whether the points in my OP are "general" practices used by studios in Colombia.

Not really anything to do with the studio being in Colombia, or it even being a cam model studio.

As I said there are vanilla industries where employers lay claim to their employees' intellectual property if it was created whilst in their employ.

 

[rockin_rod]

Should also probably add: Not a lawyer, just some random guy who gets naked on the internet so don't assume it to be legal advice

And also one of the most knowledgeable and helpful guys, always appreciate what you contribute