Pro-Imaging

The Great Outdoors Photo Contest ends 31 March 2008

The Rules of this Contest

Listed below are extracts from the rules of this competition. These extracts detail the rights being claimed from entrants.

"THE POTENTIAL WINNERS ARE REQUIRED TO EXECUTE THE FOLLOWING: (1) AN AFFIDAVIT OF ELIGIBILITY AND LIABILITY RELEASE; (2) WARRANTY OF OWNERSHIP AND LICENSE; (3) PUBLICITY RELEASE; AND (4) ANY OTHER AFFIDAVITS AND/OR RELEASES OR ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS THAT MAY BE REQUIRED BY PRIZE SUPPLIER(S). UNLESS PROHIBITED BY LAW, THE POTENTIAL WINNERS MUST SIGN THESE THREE DOCUMENTS NO LATER THAN 15 DAYS FROM THE DATE OF PRIZE NOTIFICATION IN ORDER FOR SPONSORS TO AWARD THE PRIZE. NONCOMPLIANCE OR RETURN OF PRIZE NOTIFICATION AS UNDELIVERABLE MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION AND, AT SPONSORS' DISCRETION, SELECTION OF AN ALTERNATE WINNER."

"By participating, all entrants grant the Sponsors and their designees, licensees or affiliates (the "Authorized Parties") a license for use in connection with The Great Outdoors Photo Contest and promotion of The Great Outdoors Photo Contest, in any media now or hereafter known, including but not limited to: publication in PDN and/or Traveler magazines showcasing the winners; exhibit of the work at the PhotoPlus Expo 2008; The Great Outdoors Photo Contest live gallery; the Great Outdoors Photo Contest Web site and on PDNOnline.com and nationalgeographic.com; and in exhibits and promotions related to the Great Outdoors Photo Contest. Such license is a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual license to reproduce, distribute, display and create derivative works of the entries (along with a name credit). Authorized Parties will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such use."

Results of Testing the Rules

Listed below are the results of the tests we carried out on this competition's rules. The tests are all based on the standards set out in The Bill of Rights. By adopting these standards competition organisers can create competition rules that meet the needs of organisers and are fair and respectful to the rights of entrants. For each test a result is given which can be Pass of Fail. Competitions that pass all these tests go on The Rights On List, those that don't go on The Rights Off List.

If the rules are vague and we cannot determine whether the rules pass a particular test or not the result is shown as Unclear.  Where a test is not necessary the result is shown as N/A.

Click on any result below for more information about that specific test.

1 Copyright & Moral Rights 

• Pass, All photographers entering the contest retain their copyright
• Pass, The contest does not require any entrants to waive moral rights
• Pass, A credit is always given to the photographer when the image is published
  
• Fail, All the documents that must be completed by each entrant to participate in or win a contest are shown
  

2 Free Usage Durations Claimed

• Fail, The organisers free usage is time limited as per The Bill of Rights
  
• Fail, The sponsors free usage is time limited as per The Bill of Rights
• N/A, Book usage is time limited as per The Bill of Rights
  
• Unclear, free usage only promotes the contest or is used for a book 

3 Commercial Usage Rights Claimed

• Fail, A statement clarifying the commercial usage position is present as per The Bill of Rights
• Unclear, Commercial usage is rights managed & time limited as per The Bill of Rights
• Pass, Entrants are not required to sign commercial usage licenses

4 Declarations

• Pass, The organisations that acquire rights are all named
• Fail, This (or last) years Judges are named along with brief bio details

5 Contest End Date

• Pass, The contest end date is within 16 months of the contest being announced

Conclusions

This contest fails The Bill of Rights because -

If you submit an image to this contest, although you can continue to license your image non-exclusively, you will lose forever the right to exclusively license your image. 

This contest is not recommended. 

Organisations - PDN, National Geographic, Marriot, Budget, bogen imaging, Leica, Jack's Diving Locker, Hawaiin Airlines, blurb

Judges - "a panel of National Geographic Traveler Photo editors and Photo District News experts in photography"

Contact - Send enquiries and views about this contest to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , and to Leica at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

© 2008 Pro-Imaging; Last updated on 12 June 2008

The above text may be reproduced providing the Pro-Imaging copyright notice is displayed with a link to the Pro-Imaging website.

Text reproduced above in quotes has been extracted from the competition website for the purposes of review in this report.

NB. If the competition rules are changed after updated date shown above it is the competition organisers responsibility to notify Pro-Imaging of changes made.