Quote:
Originally Posted by arg
Donovan, just going by this thread, it doesn't sound model
theft, but that the model wanted to join Lightspeed. Steve
told her not while she had a deal with your cousin, so the
model negotiated with your cousin, and your cousin told Steve
she was free. It doesn't sound like Steve did anything to
pressure your cousin. Is there another side to that story?
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Okay: brand new model is found by my cousin. That model is shot for ATK, Karups, and Teen Flood by my cousin. The model is then offered her own site, and accepts. My cousin (who is normally shooting for aforementioned ATK, Karups, TeenFlood, etc to make a living) now takes all of her time and puts it into shooting a site for Brandy (the model's real name). My cousin isn't generating any income for herself. She's investing her time and money into getting this site ready for launch.
The Phoenix Forum is coming up. My cousin tells the model that it would be a good idea to go with her to the Forum to meet other webmasters. Those webmasters are sure to love her personality and promote her new site.
The model goes to Phoenix. Her personality shines. She gets freaky with some Lightspeed girls. Members of the Lightspeed staff start telling her things about how well she'll fit in with their group. How she'd make more as a Lightspeed girl than she will with my cousin. They tell her my cousin doesn't "own" her and she's free to do whatever she wants. Etc. All of this is very unprofessional. They were basically setting out to steal her.
And what brand new girl isn't going to be awed by Lightspeed doing their thing in Phoenix? They put on a good show and throw some great parties.
Steve is made aware of the situation. At first he doesn't give a shit. Then I have a talk with him and tell him about how shitty the situation really is. Then my cousin does as well. Steve says (this is a direct quote), "I certainly treat my exclusive contracts as property that I will protect --- I can understand why Kristen is upset". Duh. So what are you going to do about it, Steve?
Steve then says he'll let the model and my cousin work it out amongst themselves. He throws out several different scenarios.
One of them is to give my cousin a percentage of sales from Nikki's site. Another: around that time he was offering photographers a deal where he'd buy 200 sets for $20,000.
I pointed out to Steve that my cousin had already invested several thousand dollars into the model and had shot a TON of content of her. It wasn't right for Lightspeed to snatch her away in the first place. And if they DID decide to violate basic ethics and do so, he should at least buy the content she'd already shot and give her a percentage of the site.
Now, it should be mentioned that right about this time Lightspeed was telling my cousin she should start a site with them too. She hadn't signed a contract yet but she was excited about doing the site. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If she made too much fuss over this model deal she'd possibly jeopardize her own site with Lightspeed. The funny thing is: "Tiffany" (my cousin) had asked my opinions on doing a site with Lightspeed. This was before the situation with Brandy/Nikki/Skylar. I thought the world of Steve at the time and encouraged her to go for it. I thought of Steve as an intelligent, fair business man. Damn, was I wrong about that.
Steve once told me at Internext that he was afraid to bring Tawnee to shows because he didn't want other companies trying to steal her from him. He should know better than to do this.
Is it legally okay for him to have done this? Possibly. Probably. But it's morally and ethically NOT okay. And we all should have expected more from one of the "industry leaders".
Keep reading to find out the final resolution and what my cousin was paid. I had a lot of respect for Steve before all of this. That respect is gone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arg
You did mention that Steve promised someone (whom?) never to open a site with this model, and if you have that promise
recorded, maybe it would help tarnish Steve's reputation.
It sounds like he isn't launching the site until he gets a
contract squared away with the model, so if the "promise"
was more along the lines of their previous contract didn't
provide for an exclusive site, and he's working on a new
contract that does, there's nothing wrong with that.
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Go read post #35. Here's part of that post:
DonovanPhillips [6:48 PM]:
...do you think she likes the idea of Brandy getting a site after promises were made not to do that?
Lightspeed-SteveJone [6:50 PM]:
have you seen me LAUNCH the site yet, ASSHOLE?
You notice that Steve DOESN'T say, "I never promised not to launch a site of her." In fact, his reply confirms for everyone that the promise was made.
My cousin finally had to accept the measly $1,000 "referral" fee from Steve it was because she was so sick of dealing with it that she just wanted it to be finished. Believe me, it was an emotionally draining experience. Steve knew she was getting sick of dealing with it and that he didn't have to give her a percentage OR buy her content. So he didn't. He withdrew that as an option.
She accepted the $1,000 on the condition that Brandy would only be used as the "Lightspeed Bad Girl" and cause drama on all the other sites (quite the fitting role, I might add). Read the Lightspeed message boards. She'd keep doing spot parts. No site. Therefore, my cousin wouldn't be losing the percentage on a site that Steve mentioned early on in this mess.
The content was offered once again to Steve, who refused to purchase it. She told him that it needed to be sold as it was useless to her. He still said "no" so I purchased it. I originally thought I'd find some use for it inside AmateurMarket.net
But now there is a site in progress in Lightspeed world, contrary to what Steve promised (again, see post #35 in this thread). I decided to launch my own site. With the content purchased from my cousin I have enough to launch and update for 6 months.
The point is: if Steve had done the right thing he would have said, "You had an agreement with someone else. I'm not going to touch you." In that "Tawnee" thread here on GFY you saw numerous webmasters telling Steve they wouldn't represent Tawnee out of respect to him. He doesn't have that same respect for others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arg
Also, I don't recall Steve warning anyone not to hire Tawnee.
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I'm sure you can figure out for yourself why that whole thread was started. A direct warning may not have been issued but we all got the message.
One thing that can be learned by this thread: don't take your models to events if you think Steve may be interested in them.