Recently, I’ve had a problem with OnlyFans. While I felt it wasn’t right to reveal the details of that particular case to protect privacy, I discovered a much larger problem. In short, if your best OnlyFans work is stolen, you will have to pay to see it and prevent it from being used illegally.
Ah, OnlyFans. It is a great site for many content creators with a wide variety of content. The business idea of the website is amazing and I applaud the creators of the business. They entered the market at a high level (COVID) and eventually became a very profitable business. Ahead of the new wave of the porn industry (let’s face it), they created a great business model that has been copied a few times.
What is OnlyFans and what does the legal aspect of selling images look like there?
OnlyFans is a commercial site, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows what the platform does: sell images. This is no different than putting your photos on Shutterstock and selling a license to them. The way OnlyFans describes it is that you grant them a license to sell images. Like I said, legally it’s not much different from Shutterstock. As for content, you’ll find better images on Shutterstock, in my opinion.
The numbers are impressive
There are over a million creators on OnlyFans and 120 million users. That’s a lot of people, a lot of transactions, and therefore a lot of money being exchanged. Revenue reported for March 2021 was $3 billion. OnlyFans says that they pay over $200 million per month to creators. I think for a site that is essentially Instagram with a fee wall and non-existent nudity policy, the numbers are impressive. To achieve them is not an easy task. Fortunately, there is an audience that is willing to pay for some tasteful and not so elegant content on sites like OnlyFans.
How did you discover that your picture was stolen by the creators of OnlyFans?
The short answer is that there is no easy way to find out that your picture has been stolen by an OnlyFans creator. The problem lies in the paywall, which restricts users from viewing potentially stolen images. One way or another, this is basically the sale of stolen images in secret, similar to the black market. Unfortunately, this means a couple of unfortunate things for the photographers behind these images: their job is to model and make money from OnlyFans, but they don’t get a share.
Because it’s hidden, this can go on for years without anyone noticing. What’s worse, for particularly large creators, it can make thousands of dollars. Thousands, which, frankly, you should have a part.
Popular platforms used to detect unauthorized use of images are useless to OnlyFans, again due to a wall of fees. There’s no way around that fee wall for anyone who isn’t a) OnlyFans employee b) the creator who posted the stolen work. Let’s check it out and see if either of these two would be interested in protecting photographers from having their work stolen. In my opinion, OnlyFans staff is committed to helping photographers recover stolen images. But that comes with a caveat: only if they’re notified. People reported that there was no problem when the stolen work was removed and the user investigated. The point is someone has to figure out the abuse of their image. For you, b) the creator, well, if they steal it, they’ll have to be pretty talented to discover it on their own. Although this also happened. Someone publicly posted stolen content and then directed their audience to buy (that exact content) on OnlyFans. Ambassador of logic right there. 
Model Doesn’t Own The Image And Has The Right To Sell It?
Image copyright is owned by you. The moment you take a photo, it’s yours. No one else is entitled to use your copyrighted work. As for the model, they don’t own a single pixel in your file. They are free to take pictures of themselves in the mirror and post all they want online. If a team, including photographers, has been working on an image, the photographer owns the file. It’s a whole different topic of who owns the makeup ideas and who owns the styling ideas. The bottom line is that you, the photographer, own the entire copyright to the photo and decide where it goes.
What Should I Discuss Before Taking a Photo?
Before shooting, you must discuss where the image will be used. If you want, even sign a user contract for this. The crew must be clear about what they can and cannot do. In addition, you should agree to further uses, such as sublicensing photos. Your team must know how to use the work and what happens if the images are sold to a third party. It must also be discussed what the group can and cannot do with the photos.
There is nothing you can do to discover that your work has been stolen and sold by OnlyFans
Nothing can be done. There is no way to check if your work has been stolen on OnlyFans other than paying to subscribe. Getting a refund later because trying to spot the stolen work is also out of the question. The feedback you get is that their fees are non-refundable. This literally means losing money because your images are stolen, or losing money because of a “creator” subscription on OnlyFans. Unfortunately, you are losing money with no real way to get it back. OnlyFans also does not offer refunds that creators may have lost as a result of their work being sold without permission. 
Message OnlyFans
I am extremely frustrated to have to write that there is no way to see if content has been stolen by your users. There is no alternative but to pay a non-refundable fee and file a DMCA takedown notice. OnlyFans, deploys a way for photographers to see if their work has been stolen by finding a match for the image they want to check. Also, refund creators who had to pay out-of-pocket to send takedown notices. Not only do creators lose money due to commercialization of their work, but they also have to pay for a website they don’t want to appear on.
