Suicide Girls would be Suicide

[mbarrick]

While working my photo-booth at the last Sin City I was asked about shooting for Suicide Girls. Being aware of Lithiumpicnic's legal troubles with SG, and just plain being a stickler for knowing what I am getting into (just last week, for example, I found myself in a room with four people staring at me impatiently while I read every word of a contract, twice, before signing it) I was reading the photographers release contract for SG.

The Jesus-Fuck-I-Wouldn't-Touch-That-With-A-3.048m-Pole clause, similar to what has Lithiumpicnic in trouble from his contract, is the non-competition clause.

8. Non-Competition. Photographer agrees that for two (2) years after the full execution of this Assignment, Photographer will not directly or indirectly: (i) sell or otherwise provide Internet, photographic, video, film, audio, text, design, artistic or other creative content to any “SG Competitor”; or (ii) own, manage, operate, join, control, finance or participate in the ownership, management, operation, control or financing of, or be connected as an officer, director, employee, partner, member, principal, agent, representative, consultant or otherwise, to any “SG Competitor”. “SG Competitor” means any person, entity or organization other than SG that competes with SG, including but not limited to any person, entity or organization that creates, develops, manufactures, produces, distributes, markets, licenses or sells events, products or services that compete with SG.

Should, for example, at some point in the next two years Gothic BC or any of my other sites be deemed an "SG Competitor" I'd be screwed. If I shot for any other site I'd be screwed. If I so much as provided my professional services as a photographer, artist, programmer or consultant (how I make my living!) to any entity that happens produce any kind of material that competes with SG, even if my work is not directly related to the competing products, I'd be liable.

And for what? SG pays $500 USD (now worth only $471.97 CAD) per set. Split with the model I'd have about $235 taxable dollars in my pocket. In return they have me by the short-hairs for two years. How not worth it is that?

With this non-competition clause, no sane professional photographer would have anything to do with SG.

Comments

[carpe-jugulum.livejournal.com]

Yeaaaahhh. No shit. This is just one of the reasons why I won't have anything to do with SG and why I turn down each and every woman who asks me to do their sets for the site.

The other reason is that I really can't afford to lose my decent job/reputation because someone's decided I'm a Pornographer. Girls always ask me to shoot them because I'm "not skeezy", but if I'm taking pictures of naked people for a porn site that regulates and underpays its models/photos, aren't I by proxy then being skeezy?!

Thanks for posting this--it's much appreciated to see someone else with my same mindset.

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The "not-skeezy" thing is a whole other aspect that I worry about a lot. For on thing, I'm 40 now. Keeping the Creepy-Middle-Aged-Guy-With-A-Camera thing at bay isn't easy. I've spent years building my reputation. I also have this inconvenient ethical streak where I can't abide by people getting exploited and screwed over. I just quit my job over what I would characterize as a question of ethics.

In other news, wait until you see some the steampunky-goodness I have up my sleeve for Elaine's store... ;-)

[carpe-jugulum.livejournal.com]

Oh, word up, bro. And nearly all my paid shoots are family portraits or shots of kids performing, so it wouldn't do to be a Pornographer, would it now. Wretched ethical streak indeed.

Not to mention...but frankly I am like, SO bored with fetish photography and pin-up girls. I mean, really. It can be so exploitative...and so banal. Show me something I haven't seen before. Mmmhmm.

Can't wait to see the store! I do so love Elaine's work.

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Actually I wasn't so much taking about a redesign for the store (although that's been talked about) but some men's items I'm making *for* the store.

[carpe-jugulum.livejournal.com]

Even better. :)

[contrasoma.livejournal.com]

Guh? I know bubkiss about professional photography, but the idea of a freelancer not being allowed to, well, freelance for two frackin' years after one day's work is madness.

[r-lex.livejournal.com]

Pretty cute how they don't define in any way what constitutes 'competition' with SG. Is my blog in competition with SG? After all, people can't be looking at naked ladies if they're reading my latest diatribe on Silver Age DC comic books.

What a load of rich creamery butter.

[euvie.livejournal.com]

Hold on a second, when did Canadian dollar become more expensive than Americal dollar?? I have only been away form two months and a bit!

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

It crossed the line a couple weeks ago (http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/823804.html). First time in 30 years. It's not that the Canadian dollar is doing particularly well, our dollar is pretty stable compared to the Euro and other currencies, it's the American dollar that is tanking.

[euvie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know that it's the American dollar that is falling. Yay, I suppose? At the same time it makes me think of the implications of it and what kind of shit they might pull out of desperation. Scary.

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

The shit is already being pulled. The value of USD is based in the fact that you can only buy oil in USD. If any nation needs to buy oil they need to generate value convertible to USD directly or indirectly, ensuring the US a healthy GDP. Nearly every country is forced to maintain a reserve of US currency to ensure their oil supply. If the US needs to buy foreign oil, they can just print more money.

As the US gets more dependent on foreign oil they need to print more money, which devalues the currency, but that is not the worst of it. There are now countries that are taking Euros for oil and countries are now maintaining reserves in USD and EUR.

Take these three countries for example:

Venezuela: Accepts Euros and value-for-value exchange for their oil. Oil production is state-owned and oil products are sold domestically at cost. Cheney said publicly that Chavez needs to be shot. The US tried to orchestrate a coup and install a puppet dictator (and failed).

Iraq: Former puppet government started taking Euros for oil. Invade. Depose. Install new puppet government.

Iran: Started taking Euros for oil. Invasion is imminent.

All scary enough. Scarier still is Russia now taking Euros for oil, China continuing to refusing to buy into US-centric economy at all, and Saudi Arabia (kingpin of OPEC) making moves that point to unbinding itself from the US dollar.

[seymour-glass.livejournal.com]

the other big use of u.s. dollars is the blackmarket...most drugs and illicit goods were purchased in american 100 dollar bills...it was the most convenient currency to do business in...but when they came out with a 500 euro note some of the trade started switching...takes much less volume to make your buy...and that isn't a small market at all...if both oil and the blackmarket switched away from american dollars it would be a catastrophe in them...pretty hard to handle the black market...it doesn't respond to the same diplomacies or pressures...

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Good --and interesting-- point.

[seymour-glass.livejournal.com]

i read that in eric schlosser's book on the blackmarket called "Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market"...i hadn't ever considered that part of the currency market...not to mention if the american dollar starts sliding it would only make sense for the blackmarket in the rest of the world to switch to the euro notes...as you would need more american dollars for the same purchase...

[euvie.livejournal.com]

Indeed a very interesting point.

[euvie.livejournal.com]

Third world war coming up? Hmmm, who knows.

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

I was going to interview for an office job at SG once, and did not pursue.

I just read your post to my BF and he comments "... which is precisely why their photoshoots often look as unprofessional as they do."

indeed.

[mediavictim.livejournal.com]

Under Canadian law - if you run a contract business where you are not allowed to take other contracts (competition) then you are considered an 'employee' of your client wherein you must pay EI premiums and they must pay WCB, insurance and other fees plus a minimum wage for that period. You would legally lose your status as a freelance.

from what I remember - non-competition clauses are illegal/not enforceable in Canada as no one is legally allowed to prevent you from earning a living - it is a guaranteed right under the charter of rights and freedoms.

I remeber when a company I was working for (for free at the time) tried to casually pass off a NCA under my nose. For no compensation at all I wouldnt be allowed to work in the computer industy until my knoweledge was outdated (effectively ending my career).

[skinjob007.livejournal.com]

Jesus Fucking Christ. Excellent move in NOT signing that bullshit. Its faustian bargains like that that prompted me to sit down w/ a notary & a copy of both Business & Legal Forms for Photographers and ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography and hash out a set of contracts for myself. If I'm ever approached contacted for anything photo-related I have them sign my contract. If they don't, then I wish them luck & walk away. You come to me, YOU sign MY contract. Period, pointe finale, not negotiable.

& never mind all the legalese. The alarm bells really went off when I saw the money. $500? $500!? Listen UP Scrooge, I start at $5500, & that doesn't include stuff like expenses, time, or showing up dressed. Crystal?

[littlemissrisk.livejournal.com]

SG Girls has also sold photos of ex-Suicide Girls (the 30 who weremost vocal in their complaints against SG) to a temporary adult site that is turning them over to hard core porn sites under monikers of "Girls Who Like It From Behind" and "Girls Who Beg For Cock". Did I mention that the images were sold for two cents an image?

Yikes.

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, someone else mentioned that to me IRL after I made this post.