On this specific case we did speak to the model. She was in violation of a photographer’s copyright (was using photos he took without rights/permission). We do respect photographers copyright, as well as models' rights in regards to controlling their likeness (which is why we always suggest the negotiation of model releases and rights assignments). So at this point neither the photographer or model may use the images.
We follow the law in these situations, and the model was unhappy that we made her remove the images from her portfolio. The model was also unhappy with the photographer, because she stated that she hadn’t received a CD of the full-size images. We don’t know if that was part of their agreement of not, as we are a website for networking and starting the conversations – we don’t get involved in anyone’s actual shoots.
We attempted to help mediate the situation between the model and photographer, but neither would budge from their position. We did end up removing the model’s portfolio for acting immaturely by continuing to break our community rules (posting defamatory information about the photographer on her portfolio). The photographer acted professionally throughout the whole exchange, but had he acted differently or broken our rules during the exchange, he would have been removed as well.
We never refused a phone call from the model. She told us she wanted her mother to call us – which we told her would be inappropriate as the model was in her 20’s and the mother had no legal standing in the issue. Despite our telling her this, she had her mother call anyways, to which we had to tell her we could not talk to her regarding the matter, as she didn’t have any standing in the legality of the issue.
We advised the model in the best ways to handle the situation, but instead she attempted to defame the photographer (which was inappropriate in this case), and later attempted to defame our company on several sites because she didn’t get her way.
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At OneModelPlace, we have our staff members listed publicly, with direct contact information and phone numbers for any assistance required.
We have US-Based customer service run by people who have been in the photography and modeling businesses for many years.
We DO actively remove portfolios, but the ones we remove are those of the scammers, predators, escorts, etc. And those who actively abuse the community and rules of the site.
We DO run a tight ship, and when someone abuses the system, we remove them from the site.
The statement that we "refuse calls from scared models" is patently false - our number is publicly available, and we have numerous mechanisms on our site for reporting scams, shams and inappropriate behavior.
As always, we don't excpect you to take our word for it here - models can try our service for free, and find out for themselves.