Under normal circumstances, the sex workers arriving to their jobs at Sheri’s Ranch, a legal brothel in Pahrump, Nevada, have a predictable routine. Most people’s shifts at the ranch last for at least a week, and the process involves picking out a room that they’ll stay in and work out of for the duration, visiting with a doctor, and some paperwork. The week of Christmas, however, things went very differently. Sheri’s workers showing up say they were presented with a surprising and objectionable new contract that would give the brothel unprecedented control over them, their intellectual property, and their digital likenesses.

“They want everything,” says Jupiter Jetson, a sex worker, model, and adult film actress who’s worked at Sheri’s for eight years.

“Their motivation is to get ahold of our videos and the ability to create AI likenesses.”

Jetson says there had been hints that something might be afoot: in the fall, brothel management started offering what she wryly calls “teaser trailers,” saying things like “There’s a new contract coming, a lot of ladies aren’t going to like it” while at the same time insisting, she says, that “there weren’t any major changes” and framing it as a chance to “tie up some loose ends and fix some clerical errors.” Like many people in adult businesses, Sheri’s Ranch workers—referred to as “courtesans” in Nevada, the only state where prostitution is legal—are classified as independent contractors, but some say they’re treated more like employees, with the ranch controlling basic aspects of their jobs, including how much they charge and what they can wear.

According to three women with experience working at Sheri’s, the new contract made an unprecedented play for their intellectual property, one that they worry could be a bid to make money from their likenesses, including through AI, as well as potentially owning a piece of anything they might create while working at the ranch. The contract, which Mother Jones has viewed, also gives Sheri’s power of attorney over the workers’ intellectual property; as the contract puts it, to “further the prosecution and issuance of patents, copyrights, or other intellectual property protection.” The women say the contract was shown to many arriving workers in what seemed like a deliberately rushed fashion, with someone in management immediately flipping to a back page and asking them to sign without reading it closely.

In addition to the contract, the workers have other longstanding labor issues, including the “limo fees” that they’re required to pay to help transport customers from the Las Vegas strip, and the system of tip splitting—both of which organizers say appear to be legally questionable. But as sex work has become an increasingly digital field, their major concern is the contract’s threat to their ability to protect their image and likeness, especially from potential AI uses. The issue is no longer hypothetical: just this week, major Hollywood players expressed concern and outrage after the Chinese company ByteDance made an AI video featuring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Instead of signing, some of the women began talking among themselves, reading the fine........

© Mother Jones