Copyright issue - This is Important !

[Dug]

Please have a look at the Weekend Australian Travel Photo Competition post and read about the rip off occurring. This affects all photographers especially those who make a living taking photos or those who may one day wish to turn Pro.

Basically Australian Tourism is stealing all the rights to your photos just for entering them into a competition.

They request a minimum 25Mb tiff image so they are looking for professional quality images.

There are some good contact links especially corpaffairs@tourism.australia.com

If you are concerned about your rights as a photographer please send in a complaint about this rip off.

Thanks Cheers doug

Edited by Stubbsy to add post hyperlink

[stubbsy]

It's worth noting here that one of the participants in this is Maxwell Australia. I just fired this email off to them

I notice from the terms and conditions of the Weekend Australian "Wish you were here" photo competition (http://www.theweekendaustralian.com.au/photocomp/ ) that Maxwell is one of the supporters of this competition (presumably because you donated some of the prizes).

I am concerned that an organisation that owes a part of it's profits to the sale of professional photographic cameras and lenses to working photographers in this country would be associated with a competition that negatively impacts on those same individuals. Reading the entry rules it becomes clear that each and every entrant in the competition, winner or not, must hand over full ownership rights of their image to the promoters (Nationwide News Pty Limited ) to use as they see fit. This effectively provides a large stock photo library of Australian images to News Limited at zero cost. There are many in the photographic community who derive all or part of their income from selling such images for commercial use and that livelihood is directly impacted by activities such as this.

It is disclosed in the rules that the images of the winners will be used in a 2007 calendar and may tour in a photographic display, but having assigned ALL rights to the images to the promoters these images can be used in perpetuity for any purpose Nationwide News may see fit. They could, for example, publish a book of Aussie photos, licence the images to a company that produces postcards, sell the images to an advertiser for use in an advertising compaign etc.

I am very disappointed that a company such as yours would be associated with such a blatant attack on working photographers in this country and believe you are sending a very poor message to purchasers of your products

[rooboy]

The regular photo competitions run by Getaway do the same thing, but at least in their case, they only ask for small JPEGs, not usefully sized TIFFs. It's a very nasty way of making money, but hopefully any pro or semi-pro photographers would take the time to read the T&Cs before handing over their property.

[sirhc55]

Lucid and elegant Peter

[Geoff]

Beautifully worded Peter - look forward to any reply you may receive. Keep us posted.

[Glen]

Doug, Stubbsy, etc good points. Will make this a sticky for the next two to three days so all members can get a look at it.

A bit cheeky the size of image they are asking for

[Nnnnsic]

Christ.

25mb Tiffs? Really?

I'd be surprised if the average person knows what that is, let alone how to generate one from their digital camera's jpeg shot.

[Dug]

Doug, Stubbsy, etc good points. Will make this a sticky for the next two to three days so all members can get a look at it.

A bit cheeky the size of image they are asking for

Many thanks Glen, being a photographer is getting difficult enough without stuff like this happening

[avkomp]

this sux really,

basically they will get their calendar etc for free.

will be interested in what maxwells have to say in reply to the letter also.

Steve

[Sheila Smart]

There is a similar competition being run by City of Sydney Council

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Comm ... bition.asp

which also seems to think that they can do anything they like with the images, without payment or authorisation by the photographers. This seems to be pervading the industry of late. But the weirdest thing is that the entries can only be in "horizontal" so it does not muck up their hanging of the exhibition. One wonders who is running this exhibition.

Cheers
Sheila

[radar]

At least for the Sydney Art and About competition, they don't take copyright from you. Also, it only applies to winning entries, not all entries like The Australian competition. You can have your entry returned.

Not that I agree with the conditions

There does seem to be a trend with these competitions that promoters get the right to do whatever they want with the photos, even the non-winning ones.

As Peter mentionned, one would hope that a company like Maxwell would "understand", but they likely just wanted the publicity.

Cheers,

André

[birddog114]

As Peter mentionned, one would hope that a company like Maxwell would "understand", but they likely just wanted the publicity.
André

Don't you know Maxwell?

[thaddeus]

Dug, they are not stealing your rights. Entrants are agreeing to transfer their rights in consideration for a chance of winning the prize. If you don't like it, don't enter it!

Meta-comment: Can someone edit the subject of this thread to better reflect what it's about? Subjects like "This is important!" are almost impossible to interpret when browsing or searching the forum.

[gstark]

Meta-comment: Can someone edit the subject of this thread to better reflect what it's about? Subjects like "This is important!" are almost impossible to interpret when browsing or searching the forum.

Good suggestion; thanx and done.

[Dug]

Dug, they are not stealing your rights. Entrants are agreeing to transfer their rights in consideration for a chance of winning the prize. If you don't like it, don't enter it!

Theft by deception is just the same as outright theft in my book!

[Nnnnsic]

There is a similar competition being run by City of Sydney Council

Cheers for that link.
I've been wondering when that was opening up for entries again as I've had a shot ready for that since last year.

One more now as well.

[Sheila Smart]

There is a similar competition being run by City of Sydney Council

Cheers for that link.
I've been wondering when that was opening up for entries again as I've had a shot ready for that since last year.

One more now as well.

I hope its a "landscape" ie horizontal image!

Cheers
Sheila

[stubbsy]

Guys. I've heard back from Maxwell.

Dear Mr Stubbs,

Thank you for your feedback with regards to the photo competition. I have spoken to Nationwide News about changing the terms and conditions but they unable to because the rules have been published. They have assured me that it they will not be using these images outside of the competition.
I can assure you that we do support professional photographers and have been associated with the competition to encourage more people into taking great photographs.

Yours sincerely

Alistair Robins

My response was:

Thank you for your prompt response. That is reassuring and hopefully future competitions won't have such contentious rules.

I have to give credit to Maxwell for both contacting News Ltd and for responding to me so promptly

[Glen]

That is a reassuringly prompt reply by Maxwells and showing the right attitude.

[elffinarts]

So from that it does sound like they were just using slack legals to write the rules.

Knowing how often I call for our lawyers and drag them out of pubs or "functions" it comes as little surprise.

I still wouldnt trust this comp. That only comes from Maxwell, NewLTD may still decide to do what ever they wish with the images.

[Dug]

Great news but it will be interesting to see what the rules for the next competition are!

thanks to everyone who sent in a message, we can change things if we try

[garyr]

Well I finally got a response from Tourism Australia (my email to them is in the other thread.....pasted below fyi:

Thank you for forwarding your concerns, which we have taken on board.



The Wish You Were Here competition is aimed at readers of the Weekend Australian to get them thinking about domestic holidays and sharing the wonderful experiences that come with taking a holiday in your own country. Tourism Australia will only be seeking to use the images of the winners and finalists, not all entrants, and even then the use will be very limited to activities such as the potential to appear in a Tourism Australia/News Ltd calendar.



Tourism Australia currently has an extensive library of images through the commissioning of some of Australia’s top photographers in the tourism and travel sector and we will continue to work the Australian creative community to promote Australia internationally as a world class destination.

[Dug]

Lets hope they change the rules for the next competition.

A good result anyway.

[Sheila Smart]

Tourism Australia will only be seeking to use the images of the winners and finalists, not all entrants, and even then the use will be very limited to activities such as the potential to appear in a Tourism Australia/News Ltd calendar.


.

But this is not reflected in the terms which appear all encompassing!

Each entrant assigns to the Promoter all copyright and other intellectual property rights in each photo and description sent in as part of an entry in this competition. Each entrant acknowledges that the Promoter, as owner of the copyright in the photographs and descriptions, may reproduce the photographs and descriptions in any media or marketing for any purpose without permission or payment. The entrants agree to waive all their rights, including moral rights, in the photographs entered by the entrants in this competition

For an entrant to forego a tangible for an intangible - ie. the photograph (and its copyright in same) for a "possibility" that they will win, is just not on.

Photographers on sites such as these know what to look for when entering comps but I am sure that there will be a lot of others who do not and enter not realising that they will lose copyright. That Tourism Australia states otherwise to Gary will probably not hold up in Court

Cheers
Sheila