Firstly, technically it is not slavery. It is indentured servitude. It is a very important distinction, as one implies outright ownership of a person, while the other is essentially a renting of their self for a prolonged period of time. Secondly, it hardly makes you a bad person, there are cases in the Eclipse Phase universe where, honestly, indentured servitude is one of the most efficient means of dealing with a problem (Too many people, not enough bodies). To answer your actual question, it is not, as you say, properly laid out at any time in canon. However there have been numerous discussions on the matter on these very forums, and a quick use of the search function will bring those up. I am of the mind that the purchase of an indentures contract is at least an Expensive purchase. One might be able to rent their contract for much less, but to actually be transferred ownership costs a decent amount of credit. First you have to be able to afford the lawyer(s') to facilitate the transfer of ownership. Then you have to have a “freedom wage” ready, or you at least have to prove that you have the means to acquire it (Typically this would be whatever morph proscribed in the contract, and could range from a Moderate purchase for a Case, to an Expensive purchase for an Exalt.) Then, depending on your physical location, you may have to prove to authorities that you can supply a bare minimum level of care for the indenture. This could include things such as living space, entertainment facilities, mental and physical health care. Most of the time when you are dealing with indentures you are within the inner system. The PC has a very real reason for making sure that indentures are not abused (At least by the general public, the ruling hypercorps are an entirely different matter). The PC economy basically depends on a constant influx of cheap labor. If word goes out that signing on as an indenture not only results in losing 10 years of your life (And honestly, what is 10 years when you are immortal?) but also presents a good chance of 10 years of constant abuse then that labor pool is going to dry up fast. So, at least for the general public, you are probably looking at a fairly large investment. If you happen to be a hypercorp with connections with the ruling class, and enough lawyer backup to keep any abuse under wraps? Much cheaper. P.S, on reprogramming indentures. Yeah, that would probably be against their contract and a violation of numerous mental preservation laws. The Inner System in general seems to be against people tinkering with other peoples brains against their will, at least when it isn't them doing it at least. The Outer System is a whole different can of worms. Reprogram someones mind out there and you are looking at being punted out an airlock. AGI specifically, in the Inner System they are basically either illegal or considered legal persons, so you are going to run into problems there as well. Note, this is my particular view on the matter. Different people on these forums have very differing views. I am sure they will pop up soon enough :)

True, I jumped the gun on assuming the OP meant indentured rather than straight out ego slavery such as that done by the criminal groups. However I would actually put forward that even then, you are looking at both an expensive and extremely volatile set of circumstances. You have to smuggle the enslaved ego into whatever environment you want them in. PC controlled space habitats are basically right out, as is much of the rest of the inner system. You might get away with it for a still reasonable cost on Mars I guess. You have to keep the egos away from the authorities at all costs, one peep out of someones mouth and you have an entire Overwatch division coming down on you hard. No one wants to think that it could be their kid/husband/parent who has been fork napped and is being forced into slavery. Overwatch is going to come down hard on anyone who even looks like they are involved, even if they only do it to score browney points. Easier to just hire yourself a short term indenture, or maybe an AI who can do everything you need. Or just fork yourself.

Perception is of course everything in a Reputation economy. You can only lose rep for acts people are aware off. I've been toying with introducing some black-hat ego hacking into the backstory of the multiple-personality character I am currently playing. The character is a first generation Ego who suffered from dementia prior to her first re-sleeving. I had been thinking that wiping another Ego's memories completely and then implanting the base line memories of a dementia victim waking in a new sleeve might be a great way of creating an Ego that was completely convinced that it was somebody else entirely whilst still retaining it's very useful skillset. A few carefully constructed psychotherapeutic blocks ....