Has anyone here ever written reviews of the male models on OnlyFans? I know there is no affiliate link to them so no way to profit from it. I was just thinking about writing some reviews to generate traffic to my sites where I have affiliate links for other sites.
But what about using a few of the model’s photos from their Only Fans account in my review? I seem to recall under the Fair Use clause of copyright law you can use a limited amount of material to help support a critical review so could I do it in this case? I think you’re also supposed to include a disclaimer saying the copyright of the images belongs to the model.
Of course getting the models permission to use their photos would be my first choice but a lot of these guys never respond to messages unless you tip them.
I think you could use their pics and just be ready to remove them if requested. It’s a little hit and miss with OnlyFans models, some of them recognize that being featured on a blog raises their profile and will generate more interest in them over time, others have a knee-jerk response to seeing their images used and don’t consider any benefits and will demand you remove them.
I’ve featured cam guys, male models and photographers. Most of them are fine with it or just don’t know, but there’s probably 3-5% who fire off emails acting like you’ve just shot their dog and demanding that you never mention their name again.
While I do think it’s good to feature content you’re not making money from (Google seems to notice if every single one of your posts has affiliate links, so breaking that up with non-affiliate content is worth it, if sometimes painful) but I’d suggest looking for other ways to do that.
Articles, information, stories, polls, there are all kinds of ways to add more value to your site which might serve you better than promoting other businesses. Really, by promoting an OnlyFans model you’re just telling the reader to go there. I think it would be better to find a way to offer something unique to your site, and thereby giving them a reason to stick around, read other posts, join your newsletter etc.
I’d be VERY careful with using ANY images of models without permission. I know an affiliate site that was recently sued for $70,000 for using some onlyfans pics of a model which had a link to her onlyfans as well as a paysite she was featured in.
That doesn’t seem like a sensible use of the legal system and I don’t think the model is likely to win something like that, unless the affiliate outright refused to remove the content. I think the court would likely throw it out considering she won’t be able to prove damages, and if she didn’t request the media be removed before going this far they’ll see it as a frivolous suit.
The only way I can imagine she would win is if she asked for removal and the affiliate refused. Under almost any other circumstances it would be a dangerous precedent to set, opening the floodgates to all manner of abuses of the legal system regarding IP claims.
As long as the publisher is responsive and removes content under valid request I don’t think there’s legal recourse to go further.
I have first hand knowledge of the incident. It was a former model of one of our solo girl paysites that was attacking the affiliate website for using her onlyfans images without permission and linking to websites on the page that she wasn’t getting commission on. They did settle out of court on threat of Federal Litigation but the affiliate still had to pay some money as well as legal fees to their Lawyer to come up with the settlement (I know that the settlement was way under the $70,000 that they were requesting but is was still a sizeable amount of money). I know that this Attorney represents other pornstars as well and is extremely aggressive, he doesn’t just DMCA you but also threatens you with a lawsuit if you don’t pay their requested amount of money, and they are very serious about litigating. Again, my strong advice is to get the model’s permission before you post any of their fan images, doing things any other way is just shady and bad business if you want my honest opinion. I work with a lot of models and believe me, they aren’t happy when they find their images being used on websites without permission. Especially the fan models that don’t always want their content to be very public.
What if someone posts an image to their blog which they sourced from a social media site or Google images? Can the model then just sick a legal team on them without requesting removal and sue them for $1 million?
The process has been established in law already.
A DMCA is filed, the “offender” complies with it by removing the content in question, no one goes to court and no one is sued.
If the “offender” refuses to remove the content it’s reasonable for that model to then take them to court.
I don’t understand how this model was able to get away with completely bypassing the established legal avenue, and that a court actually upheld this. There must be a piece of this I’m missing, because on cursory look this case potentially opened the floodgates to millions of lawsuits for every social media company hosting any image that the model depicted had not given explicit permission for.
There has to be an aspect of this that I’m not picking up on, because it looks like all established IP law was just completely abandoned for this model and her case.
As I mentioned above, this never went to court, it was settled privately between the parties. That said, in the US anyways, it’s very easy for anyone to start a lawsuit claiming damages. It doesn’t mean that the lawsuit will be successful; that being said, if you don’t show up for the court hearing than the judgement will go to the claimant. Most people would rather settle outside of court than have to pay the legal fees and spend the time and travel costs to go to trial.
This is all interesting information and a good discussion. I also wondered if an OnlyFans model posts an image on their Twitter page and other Twitter users re-tweet it, are they at risk of being sued?
And if I’m writing a review of a model shouldn’t “Fair Use” of copyright law come into play?
I’m all for getting permission from models but they don’t make it easy since most rarely respond to emails, if you can even find their email address.
