Workers in Nevada’s brothels and strip clubs used to operate in relative anonymity. But employers now encourage them to promote themselves through social media and Only Fans, since advertising brothels directly is illegal in Nevada. The brothel Sheri’s Ranch, outside Las Vegas, is now at the center of an effort to unionize sex workers. It began after the brothel’s managers presented workers with a new contract that would grant them perpetual control over workers’ intellectual property, or the creative product or content that they can generate and copyright. Even as women’s images are becoming more profitable, AI manipulation makes them vulnerable to new forms of abuse that current copyright law is inadequate to protect against and that unscrupulous employers may exploit to maintain control over their workers.
