Tag Archives: rights

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Thought I found a photo contest with fair terms… but only for a moment

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(Update 7/7/11: After posting a link to this old 2009 post I realized that not all of the original links are still live. Rather than start modifying the following post, I will leave it as it was written, even though access to the original posted source material may no longer be possible. Aside from the specific contest – which is long since over – and any individual involved in it, the general lesson is that it is critical to read contest terms carefully before you decide to enter.)

(Update: I just receive a, uh, “personal” email from the contest promoter. I won’t share the content of that message here at this point, but I did write what I think was a very civilized email in reply,  I offered “Scott” the opportunity to post a response here as a comment, and I offered to correct any “false statements” in my post.)

(Update #2: “Jeff” says that that I was apparently incorrect about the lack of contest terms assigning legal liability to entrants: See these terms. This longer “terms” page also includes names of “vendor sponsors” who also have acquired rights to use submitted work.)

I’ve recently posted a few times on what I and others refer to as intellectual property rights grabs masquerading as photography contests. (For example, see this post describing unethical terms in contests presented by the Sierra Club and by Costco.) The short story is that entrants (not just winners!) in these contests agree to provide to the contest organizers and typically a whole range of their associates) a cost-free, unlimited, perpetual license to use their entered photographs in essentially any way imaginable (and some contest specify that even currently unimaginable methods are included!) without any compensation, credit, or control – and many additionally assign to the entrant full legal and financial liability for the use of the photograph.

Just because one enters the contest. That’s right. If you enter and lose – and the odds are that you will lose – you are fully subject to the contest terms. Continue reading Thought I found a photo contest with fair terms… but only for a moment →

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Photographer Beware – Two Examples of Intellectual Property Rights Grabbing ‘Contests’

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Minor updates were made to this article in May of 2018. Note that the examples come from nearly a decade earlier, and that the parties mentioned may have changed their policies since they were originally posted. Although the specific examples are now dated, they still illustrate things that anyone considering entry in a “photo contest” needs to understand.

If you ever read the terms of many “photo contests” you have likely been appalled by some of them – and you should be! By simply entering many of them you surrender substantial rights to your own work. Today I want to share two current examples – each of which is very troubling though in somewhat different ways. Continue reading Photographer Beware – Two Examples of Intellectual Property Rights Grabbing ‘Contests’ →

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Another Intellectual Property Rights Grab Masquerading as a “Photo Contest”

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Many of the recent online “photo contests” have included terms that are downright offensive. Read the terms very carefully before you even submit your photographs. In many, many cases merely by submitting your photographs for consideration you assign unlimited, cost-free licenses to the contest promoters and, frequently, to a number of other entities with whom they do business.

That’s right – they acquire virtually unrestricted rights to use your work for free in any way they please, and not just for the winning photos but for ALL SUBMITTED work!

Gary Crabbe has posted a report on a particularly egregious example, but it is only one of many. Read those terms carefully!

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Photo Contests and Protecting Your Rights

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The Photo Attorney web site has a post on the subject of “rights grabs” associated with photography contests. (See “Photo Contests Here and Abroad Grab Rights“) This is a subject that has concerned me for some time, and about which I and many others have written from time to time.

The basic problem is this. In many of these contests (in most of them from what I’ve seen) the photographer who submits a photograph to the contest surrenders considerable rights to his/her work . Note that the loss of rights typically occurs whether or not the photographer’s work ‘wins’ the contest! In quite a few cases the language in the contest agreement gives full, unlimited rights for any imaginable use of the photographers submitted work without any compensation, control, or (in quite a few cases) credit to the company sponsoring the contest, the marketing firm(s) supervising the contest, and even to other businesses that they cooperate with.

This applies to every photograph submitted by every participating photographer – not just the winners. (Even if these onerous terms only applied to “winners,” one would wonder who actually “wins” in a situation where a whole team of corporate interests acquire free rights to the “winning” photographer’s work.)

No, I’m not making this up.

It is not without reason that many refer to these things as “intellectual property rights grabs” rather than as photography contests.

This is not to say that there are no legitimate photography contests. It seems reasonable that the work of contest winners would be displayed in some limited (as to time, medium, and so forth) manner directly associated with the contest itself – that would be mutually beneficial to the winning contestants and to those putting on the contest. But photographers who believe that their work has value should be very cautious about such contests, and they should read contest terms very carefully before submitting their work.