The Competition
International Garden Photographer of the Year 2009
ends 31 January 2009
The Rules of this Contest
Listed below are extracts from the rules of this competition. These extracts detail the rights being claimed from entrants -
"6.5 All images not short-listed will be deleted from our server within 48 hours of the announcement of the winners."
"11. USAGE AND LICENCING OF SHORTLISTED PHOTOGRAPHS
11.1 If your image is NOT shortlisted it will be deleted within 48 hours of the end of the competition.
11.1 If your image is short-listed you will be contacted and invited to grant permission for your image to be used to promote the Competition and exhibition only. For avoidance of doubt, no free usage of any photograph is permitted by International Garden Photographer of the Year, or any of its partners or sponsors outside the scope of the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition and exhibition. There is no plan envisaged by International Garden Photographer of the Year, or any of its partners or sponsors, to create a general commercial archive of photographs entered into this competition.
Failure to agree to this licence will not disqualify any photograph from the competition.
This invitation will state as follows:
11.3.1 You grant International Garden Photographer of the Year and its supporting partners a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty free licence to reproduce, enlarge, publish or exhibit, on any media, the photographs for any purpose connected with the Competition. This may include, but is not limited to:
(a) inclusion on the Site and on the websites of sponsors and supporters;(b) inclusion in associated books;(c) display at any associated exhibitions;(d) use in press releases to be distributed to national, regional & specialist press giving information about or promoting the Competition.11.3.2 You also agree that the organisers can sub-license images to the media for reproduction in connection with the Competition and Exhibition only. International Garden Photographer of the Year will make every effort to ensure that name credits are given to any photograph published in any medium.
11.3.3 Images used on any merchandise commissioned by the organisers will be subject to separate agreements which will be discussed individually with photographers."
Conclusions
This contest has a number of positive aspects to it which were taken into account when giving an exemption from the five year free usage rule.
The first is that although shortlisted entries are invited to grant a "non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty free licence" to IGPOTY and its supporting partners, failure to agree to this license will not disqualify the entrant from the competition. So although the organisers are requesting a perpetual license from short listed entrants, the entrants are free to decide for themselves whether to agree to this request or not. This is an exceptional provision not seen in any other contest todate.
Secondly IGPOTY clearly state that "For avoidance of doubt, no free usage of any photograph is permitted by International Garden Photographer of the Year, or any of its partners or sponsors outside the scope of the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition and exhibition. There is no plan envisaged by International Garden Photographer of the Year, or any of its partners or sponsors, to create a general commercial archive of photographs entered into this competition." Such a clear statement of policy in the rules is welcomed and we would hope that other competition organisers will follow IGPOTY's lead in this respect.
Thirdly this contest deletes all entries not shortlisted for prizes and we applaud this provision.
Complies with the Bill of Rights
This competition meets all the standards set out in
the Bill of Rights For Artists
Competitions which comply with the conditions set out in the Bill of Rights For Artists do not -
- claim copyright
- seek waiving of moral rights
- fail to give a credit for all free usage
- add, alter, or remove metadata from digital images
- seek usage rights other than for solely and exclusively promoting the contest. Note that a book, posters, cards, or a calendar are seen as legitimate ways of promoting the contest and defraying costs
- seek free usage rights in excess of 3 years
- use the images commercially without the photographers agreement, and such commercial usage is to be rights managed and limited to 3 years.
- make it a condition of winning that an entrant must sign a commercial usage agreement
- fail to publish all documents on the competition website that an entrant may have to sign
- fail to name the judges for this or last year's competition
- fail to explicitly state all the organisations who will acquire rights to the images
- set a closing date more than 18 months after the contest launch date
- fail to make clear statements of rights claimed and how images are used
© Bill of Rights Supporters Group
The above text may be reproduced providing a link is given to the Bill of Rights For Artists.
Any text reproduced above in italics has been extracted from a competition website for the purposes of review.
Organisations who would like to be promoted as a Bill of Rights Supporter and have their competitions promoted on the Rights On List can use this contact form. One of the campaign team will get in touch with you.
