Rules for Scuba Diving's 2010 Photo Contest - OUCH!

[Scared Silly]

Someone pointed this concern out to me with the rules for Scuba Diving's 2010 Photo Contest:

Scuba Diving's 2010 Photo Contest | Scuba Diving Magazine

Here is the gotcha:
By entering, you grant to Sponsor a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to edit, publish, promote, republish at any time in the future and otherwise use your submission, along with your name and likeness, in any and all media for any purpose, without further permission, notice or compensation (except where prohibited by law).

So if you enter - win or lose you just gave them rights to use your photo WITHOUT and compensation. OUCH!!

I do not mind if they do such for the winning entries but all entries is not kosher in my opinion.

 

[UnderwaterAsia]

blimey.. what's the next line on their terms and conditions, the keys to your house?

...and after a condition like that, where might the publication of an underwater photo be prohibited by law, I am wondering.

 

[Scared Silly]

blimey.. what's the next line on their terms and conditions, the keys to your house?

How about this term?

By entering, you agree that the information you provide may be sent to promotional partners of the Sponsor. You may be contacted by the Sponsor and/or promotional partners with future promotional offers.

i.e spam ...

 

[fppf]

Hate to tell you, but most photo contests have these types of clauses.
Scuba Diving Mags contest has had those clauses for years as far as I know, at least as long as I have been reading them.

 

[MarkH]

If I wasn't very ethical, I'd retire and make my living running "photo contests". You charge a "small" fee for every entry. You keep exclusive rights for every entry photo and can sell them to other companies. You sell every one's contact info to a targeted mailing list company. The best part is you don't even have to pay for the prizes since they are donated by the prize manufacturer's marketing division.

 

[DivePhotoGuide]

***UPDATED***
All of my sentiments below are confirmed with the editors of SD. Rules most likely won't be changed due to the boiler plate nature of Bonnier's programs, but there is no intention for anything beyond using winning images to announce winners and promote future contests.

******************************************

I am in touch with the editors of Scuba Diving. Often the intentions of these contests and what the terms and conditions state are two very different things. The bigger the company, the more this happens.

They will most likely not change the boiler plate language that the Bonnier lawyers have approved for most likely all of their magazines, but the intention is not to use the submitted images and only publish winners.

All of that said, the terms and conditions do leave it open ended. It is up to each photographer whether or not you want to participate or support the contest, but I predict that there is no malicious intent here.

BTW - on the event calendars on DPG we require the organizers to provide clear details on usage rights to help photographers make these decisions. We also police the contests and contact any of them that have unfair "rights grab" type conditions. Usually they change the rules because that is not their intention.

 

[noreastDIVER84]

I saw that as well. I have had that experience with a stock photo company as well. I have a few photos that a certain company who shall remain nameless wanted to purchase. I have seen what they sell the photos for and they wanted to pay me a one time fee, and not pay me royalties. I told them to take a hike. The one time fee was considerably less than what they would have charged for the photo no less.

 

[Scared Silly]

Hate to tell you, but most photo contests have these types of clauses. Scuba Diving Mags contest has had those clauses for years as far as I know, at least as long as I have been reading them.

Typically such clauses apply to ONLY the winning entries not to all entries. Which is fair for the winning entries because they get a prize.

BTW Read last years rules:

2009 Photo Contest | Scuba Diving Magazine

Now read this years rules:

Scuba Diving's 2010 Photo Contest | Scuba Diving Magazine

Quite a bit different.

 

[RJP]

Typically such clauses apply to ONLY the winning entries not to all entries. Which is fair for the winning entries because they get a prize.

Actually, it makes sense to do it the way they are. Without doing it the way they have it written, you could submit the photo to the contest and then license it, sell it, publish it, etc before the winners were selected. At that point they - and you - would be screwed if your photo was selected as a winner.

BTW Read last years rules:

2009 Photo Contest | Scuba Diving Magazine

Now read this years rules:

Scuba Diving's 2010 Photo Contest | Scuba Diving Magazine

Quite a bit different.

If I'm not mistaken, ownership changed in the interim. New owners, new legal department. New legal department, new rules.

Makes sense.

 

[DivePhotoGuide]

Actually, it makes sense to do it the way they are. Without doing it the way they have it written, you could submit the photo to the contest and then license it, sell it, publish it, etc before the winners were selected. At that point they - and you - would be screwed if your photo was selected as a winner.


If I'm not mistaken, ownership changed in the interim. New owners, new legal department. New legal department, new rules.

Makes sense.

Actually whether you win or not you can publish or license your images, they do not have exclusive rights to it. And "Commercial work" is a subjective term, is a published image commercial work if it is the only image you have ever published? Subjective at best. They really should clear that line up.

Re: ownership - that is true, Bonnier corp is a bigger company and has a lot of process in place that scales across all of their magazine titles