Pro-Imaging

Pro Imaging have set out conditions for photographic competition organisers and sponsors to be guided by when constructing terms and conditions for their competitions. We call this set of conditions The Bill of Rights for photographers.  Pro Imaging believes The Bill of Rights represents best practice to the photographic competition industry and our intent is that it should be adopted as a standard code of practice.

In this section you will find the rules of the Bill of Rights for Photographers, followed by details of the Notification Letters that are sent to competition sponsors and organisers when their competition fails to meet all of the tests we set out in the Bill of Rights. 

Competition sponsors and organisers require the right to use submitted images for publicity purposes and to promote future competitions, however, many, if not most photographic competitions seek to obtain rights well in excess of those actually needed for publicity purposes.

Pro Imaging review photographic competitions, comparing the competitions rules to the conditions set out in The Bill of Rights. Competitions which adhere to all The Bill of Rights conditions will be added to a competition list entitled The Rights On List.

How the Bill of Rights scheme works

Through our own researches and from information supplied by the public to Pro-Imaging we investigate all competions that we find. Competitions which fail one or more conditions in The Bill of Rights are placed on the Photo Competitions - Investigated list.

Subsequently, some of the competitions on the Investigated list will be chosen for a full review. This involves correspondence with the competition organiser urging rule changes. If the organiser ignores our attempt to engage in a dialogue with them, by not responding for example, or by simply refusing to adjust the competitions rules, the competition will also be reported on the The Rights Off List with full details of the review. Organisers will normally have a period of 7 days to respond to Pro-Imaging, sometimes less however where there is an urgent need for action.

If they agree to amend the rules of their competition to adhere to the Bill of Rights conditions, and Pro-Imaging is able to verify this, the competition will be placed on The Rights On List, a list of competitions which Pro-Imaging recommends to photographers.

If at anytime after a competition has been placed on the Investigated list or The Rights Off List the rules of the competition are changed, Pro-Imaging will be happy to review the competition's rules again providing we are notified by the competition organiser that they have made changes.

Click Next > > to see details of the Bill of Rights conditions.