| The Bill of Rights for Photography Competitions |
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Introduction The Bill of Rights for Photography Contests campaign was devised towards the end of 2007 and launched in March 2008. It is a response to the proliferation of photography contests being run which have the intention of claiming perpetual and irrevocable usage rights of the submitted entries, even in some cases copyrights and waiving of moral rights. The terms used in such contests are in effect exploiting entrants, seeking to remove legal rights from them, rights that are automatically granted by the law of all countries to their citizens in order that creative people can make a living from their creativity. Creativity is a very valuable commodity and the majority of the business world and publicly funded bodies have an endless need for it, sometimes preferring to obtain it for nothing through devices such as photo competitions with 'rights grabbing' terms and conditions; this is an unethical practice that is indefensible. We believe that the spirit of the law should be respected for everyone. Therefore in 2007 we set out to devise a set of standards that photography contest organisers could use to draft contest rules that would respect the creator’s rights. These standards would allow the organiser to use the images to promote the contest, the photographs, and the photographer, and certain usages to defray costs or create profit, all time limited so that when the time period expired the creator had full and exclusive rights to their images returned to them. We call this set of standards The Bill of Rights for Photography Competitions. During their development discussion took place with other photographic associations and photographic competition organisers. This extensive liaison took place to ensure the creation of a set of workable and practical standards that at the same time prevented exploitation of the entrants by respecting both their rights and their creativity. Later in this section you will find a complete listing of the Bill of Rights for Photography Competitions. How the Bill of Rights Campaign WorksWe receive notifications from photographers and Bill of Rights Supporters around the world identifying organisations that run photography competitions. Sometimes competition organisers contact us direct for advice or information. Sadly most of the contests brought to our attention have rules that do not comply with all the standards set out in the Bill of Rights. In these cases an entry is made in the Rights Off List for the organisation that is promoting this contest. If you click on the organisations name in the Rights Off List you will see all the contests they promote that we have been notified of. They are all contests with rules failing to comply with the standards set out in the Bill of Rights. As well as reporting 'Rights Off' contests we also contact organisations and invite them to become Bill of Rights Supporters. We explain that the benefits of being a Bill of Rights supporter are –
There is no fee to be paid in order to be a member of the Bill of Rights Supporters group. In return a Bill of Rights Supporter agrees only to organise or sponsor photographic contests that meet all the standards set out in the Bill of Rights for Photography Competitions and that the rules of their contests are clear and unambiguous with regard to meeting these standards. We hope that the invitation we send will enable a dialogue to take place culminating in the organisation concerned agreeing to become a Bill of Rights Supporter. Any discussions we have with the organisation concerned are in the strictest confidence and will never be revealed. If after 2-3 weeks we have had no reply to the invitation a subsequent invitation will be issued. Ultimately, if an organisation either declines the invitation, or ignores it, we will report in the Rights Off entry for that organisation whether the invitation was ultimately declined, or just ignored. However, we never report the content of any discussions we have had with an organisation. The door is always held open and we hope that perhaps in future the organisation may review its decision and decide that being a Bill of Rights Supporter is a good thing, good to promote its organisation, good to promote its photography competitions, good for the creative community, and good to be part of a process that aims to raise respect for the rights of creative people. If they do they will be welcomed to the group and their organisation and future photography contests promoted. Arrangements For CharitiesCharities frequently organise photography contests as a way of promoting their cause and also as a way of raising resources to further the charity's aims. Often charities claim via the terms and conditions permanent and irrevocable usage rights to the images entrants submit to the contest. Charity or not this practice of simply claiming via the small print extensive usage rights for entering the contest is still looked on as a rights grab and often causes friction between charities and photographers. On the other hand charities have aims that many people will have sympathy with and there should be some provision in the Bill of Rights that recognises the special status of charities. Charities are generally resourced on the basis of voluntary donations by willng members of the public who support the charity's aims. It is the principle of voluntary donation that we have adopted to enable the Bill of Rights to give charities the potential of getting rights in excess of those set out in the Bill of Rights. Rules for photography contests organised by charities would still adhere to all the standards set out in the Bill of Rights. However, a charity can add a special 'donate' section on the entry form which would detail to the entrant the additional rights the charity would like donated to them. This procedure will operate on an opt-in basis, thus the entrant will need to say they are willing to donate the additional rights requested by ticking a check box or other similar action. Entrants not donating these additional rights would still be eligible to win prizes. This principle of additional rights being given to the charity on the basis of voluntary donation not only respects the rights of the entrants to the contest, it is simply an extension of the basis upon which charities raise funds by appeals to the public, in this case the appeal is not for funds but for image usage rights. Entrants who would like to enter the contest but not donate additional rights to the charity can do so. In such a case the charity would only be granted the rights set out in the rules, which would comply with the Bill of Rights, but it should be noted that these rights will still enable the charity to promote the charities aims by publishing a book for example. The 'donate' procedure enables charities to obtain any usage rights for as long as they want for any usage with the exception of copyright, waiving of moral rights, and exclusive usage. Click Next > > below to read the complete set of standards of the Bill of Rights for Photography Competitions.
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