Pro-Imaging

Notification Letters

Organisers and sponsors of photographic competitions with rules that fail Pro-Imaging's rights tests recieve a notification letter sent by email conforming to the format listed below. Of course there may be some specific points of detail that vary depending on what is found in the competition rules. Note that indented paragraphs in the letter below are optional, each only appears if the competitions rules have failed the particular condition the paragraph is referring to.

Subject: Name of Photo Competition 

Dear Sir or Madam, 

Pro-Imaging is an international organisation representing professional photographers from over 30 countries and it is one of our foremost aims to ensure that the legal rights of photographers, professional and amateur, are respected by all. 

We note that you are promoting a photographic competition entitled 'Competition Name' with terms and conditions published at - 

< http://www.websiteaddress.com > 

Pro-Imaging recently published a Bill of Rights for photography competitions which sets out a series of conditions used to determine whether the rules for a photographic competition are both fair to the entrants and to the organisers and sponsors. It is right that the organisers and sponsors have usage rights, but one of the guiding principles embodied in the Bill of Rights is that usage should not exceed two years. We maintain public lists of photographic contests that fail and pass our Bill of Rights, these can be viewed on our website, and are also publicised through press releases and other means. 

Our Bill of Rights can be viewed here – 

http://www.pro-imaging.org/content/view/177/156/

It may be that you are unaware of the rights being acquired by your competitions rules and that they are in excess of your requirements. We have frequently found that competition promoters have delegated the creation of rules to a legal specialist who has been somewhat enthusiastic in the terms and conditions created for the contest. The information we have published in our Bill of Rights mentioned above will be helpful to a review of your contest's rules.

We have detailed below the Bill of Rights conditions that your competition rules failed. Note that in the content below each reference to the 'designated body' is to be read as meaning 'name of sponsor/organiser'

Bill of Rights Condition 1 (Copyright Claim and/or moral Rights Waived)

The rules of your competition state that by submitting entries to it the entrants are agreeing to the transfer of copyright to the designated body. This is unacceptable and fails Bill of Rights condition 1.

Copyright and Moral Rights are granted freely by the law to enable creators to profit from their creativity and innovation. All organisations and companies should respect the reason for these laws and not seek to nullify the purpose of the law.

Bill of Rights Condition 1 (Right to be credited)

The rules of your competition have no statement saying that the photographer will always receive a credit on each occasion their image is used/published. There is no good reason why images donated on the basis of free usage should not give full credit on all occasions to the creator.

Bill of Rights Condition 1 (Agreement Documents)

The rules of your competition can require entrants to sign the following documents - 

Document 1

Document 2

etc

In our Bill of Rights condition 1 we require competition rules to publicly display all the documents that an entrant may be required to sign, such documents are extensions to the competitions terms and conditions and should be open to public view. The documents mentioned in the competition rules are not displayed on the competition website. 

Bill of Rights Condition 2 (Usage Term)

The rules of your competition grant the designated body a perpetual licence to use images submitted. The Pro-Imaging Bill of Rights requires competitions to limit the usage term to two years only from the date of announcement of the winners of the competition following which the image creators and/or agents rights should revert to the status they had before entering the contest.

The sponsors and organisers will also have had the considerable benefit of publicity as a result of the competition as well as two years free image usage.

Bill of Rights Condition 2 (Restricted Usage)

The competition rules do not state that it will restrict image usage solely and exclusively to promoting this or future occurrences of this competition. Usage out with these terms will be deemed commercial usage by Pro-Imaging, and commercial usage will be subject to our Bill of Rights Condition 3.

Bill of Rights Condition 2 (Explicit Usage Statement)

The competition has no clear statements about how images submitted  might be used. This is unacceptable.

Bill of Rights Condition 3 (Commercial Usage not stated)

The competition rules do not explicitly say whether or not the images submitted will be subject to any commercial usage as required by our Bill of Rights condition 3. 

Bill of Rights Condition 3 (Commercial Usage)

The competition rules state that images may be used commercially, but they do not state that each such usage will be subject to individual rights managed agreements with the image creators subject to a maximum duration of two years

Bill of Rights Condition 3 (Commercial Usage agreements)

The competition rules require an entrant, as a condition of being considered a finalist, to sign commercial license agreements. This is not acceptable. Competition should be about the celebration of excellence and innovation and not about commercial exploitation.

Bill of Rights Condition 4 (Naming Judges, Sponsors, Affiliates, and Subsidiaries)

The Competition rules do not name and give brief biographical details of the judges. Entrants have a right to know who will judge their work, and the experience and background of the judges.

and/or

The competition rules do not list all the sponsors, subsidiaries, and affiliates. Some or all these organisations may gain rights to image usage and the contestant has every right to know who the organisations are that may gain the privilege of using their images. Entrants can have ethical or moral concerns about certain organisations and may not wish these organisations to have any access to their images. 

Bill of Rights Condition 5 (Specified End Date)

The rules of the competition have a specified end date for entries to the competition that is more than 16 months beyond the date upon which the competition details were first made public. 

Pro-Imaging is opposed to this practice of having end dates extended far into the future. It deprives the entrant the exclusive right to license his image for all of this period, and is giving the designated body free use of this image for all of this period. 

If during your review of the contests rules you require any clarification from Pro-Imaging we will be glad to assist you.

If we don’t hear from you before 'dd month 2008' we will assume that the rules of the 'Contest Name' cannot be clarified or adjusted and it will be placed by Pro-Imaging on the appropriate public lists, that is The Investigated List and the Rights Off List.

Kind regards 

Gordon C Harrison 

On behalf of 

Pro-Imaging, Abergavenny, United Kingdom, NP7 7LT 

http://www.pro-imaging.org

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Copyright © 2008 Pro-Imaging

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Future Changes

Note that Pro-Imaging reserves the right to change The Bill of Rights for Photographers at any time and without notice.

Click Next > > to find out how your organisation can freely use the Bill of Rights methodology for it's own campaigns.