UPDATE 7/28/2008: Lawsuit dropped!
I just came back from the Free Lithium Picnic benefit at the Rubber Rose. It was great to meet both Lithium Picnic and Apnea, the model he has worked with most closely, and be able to hear their stories directly.
Lithium Picnic is being sued by SuicideGirls.com (SG). There is a lot to it, but one of their main arguments is that they taught him the “style” of photography he does, so somehow he’s not allowed to do it with anyone else. I don’t understand how someone owns a “style”, so SG is using a ridiculously broad intellectual property argument that threatens a lot of people’s freedom of sexual expression. SG claims that Lithium cannot photograph any other women with tattoos, piercings and colored hair, they claim that they own that concept. Wow.
Me and Apnea
Even worse is the treatment of models. Part of why the Sharing is Sexy.org collective began was in response to SG claiming to be alternative or radical when they’re clearly not. Their behavior towards Lithium and Apnea clearly reveals that they’re just another corporation bent on profit at all costs with no interest in the liberation of people’s sexual expression.
Apnea told me that she originally left suicide girls because they wanted all their models to sign exclusivity agreements. When she joined the site there was no such agreement and she wanted to do a shoot for Gods Girls.com. They felt that she was such an important part of their image that she couldn’t do work with any other sites. So, they asked al the models to sign exclusivity agreements. The problem was, they weren’t paying her enough money to survive, but they still refused to let her do other work. Clearly the business interests of SG come before Apnea’s freedom to do what she will with her own body.
Beyond that Lithium told me that SG has proceed to maliciously attack him, trying to prevent him from working with any other models, telling anyone women who wanted to do a shoot with him that they would sue them.
In addition, SG resold their photos to other sites. Even though SG told Apnea and all the other models from the beginning that they would never resell the images, they made them availabe for just $500 to any site that wanted them. The images of many of the Suicide Girls are now all over the web on many other porn sites with new text and context never intended by the girls.
SG is going beyond corporate profit seking behavior. They are engaging in RIAA like tactics of widespread lawsuits against models and photographers all over the country who want to experss their sexuality and who may want to make a living doing so.
Support Lithium Picinc! Buy some incredibly hot prints! Buy a great tshirt! Their trial costs for the first month of their trial are in the tens of thousands. The costs for discovery are also in the tens of thousands. The total trial cost may be up to $100,000. Clearly the legal might of SG threatens to overpower the resources of individuals like Apnea and Lithium Picnic.
SG is a corporation that has made its living by trying to put a radical face on porn and used rhetoric of sexual liberation and women’s empowerment. Their current actions, using intellectual property laws to put small producers out of business and prevent them from using their bodies as they wish invalidates any claims SG has at doing anything positive for women.
If you value your freedom of sexual expression and want to see a world where everyone can express their sexualities creatively instead of having a few corporations control the breadth of sexual expressions available, then support Lithium Picnic in his trial against Suicide Girls.com.
That makes absolutely no sense. Girls with colored hair, tattoos and piercings are not an intellectual “property.” What are they going to do sue every girl on MySpace who takes profile photos with the same angle in the vein of expressing their sexuality? Bull.Shit.
November 20, 2007 @ 2:43 pmSG promised to be radical and they aren’t.