Pro-Imaging

1000000 Million Places On Earth ends 16 January 2010

The Rules of this Contest

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

"6. CLOSING DATE

6.1  The Competitions shall remain open for an initial period of 3 years until 16 January 2010 (the "Closing Date") or until a million unique places on Earth have been found, whichever is the earlier.

6.2  Based on the number and uniqueness of Entries received, MPOE reserves the right to re-open the Competition for a further 2 years and extend the Closing Date accordingly to 16 January 2012.

6.3  The Closing Date for the first Places Prize Fund is 16 January 2008.

12. LICENCE

12.1  The copyright of an Entry submitted by You remains with You. All photographs uploaded to the Website shall be protected by the MPOE watermark.

12.2  In consideration of MPOE agreeing to accept your Entry, You hereby grant to MPOE a non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, sub-licensable, assignable, royalty-free right and license to use, store, display, publish, transmit, transfer, distribute, reproduce, create derivative works from or incorporate in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed, any photograph submitted by You, which forms part of the Entry, solely in the context of the Attempt, the Competitions and this Website.

12.3  In consideration of MPOE paying a reasonable fee (which will be agreed with You in advance and in good faith), You agree to allow MPOE to reproduce any Entry for any purpose unrelated to the Attempt or the Competitions.

12.4  Where an image is reproduced by MPOE, the photographer will be credited.

12.5  If You select to sell your photographs through the Website in the future, MPOE shall pay You a royalty fee of between 70% and 80% of the value of the photograph."

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
  
• Pass, 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, Commercial usage is rights managed & time limited as per The Bill of Rights
• Unclear, Entrants are not required to sign commercial usage licenses

4 Declarations

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

5 Contest End Date

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

Conclusions

This contest fails to meet The Bill of Rights in a number of important respects.

Firstly there is no time limit placed on how long the images can be freely used to promote the contest

Secondly it is not clear from the rules that you have the right to refuse any commercial license they require (rule 12.3) and still remain as a participant in the contest, and again there no time limit set on commercial usage.

It does not make clear that commercial usage licenses will be non-exclusive. You should check what kind of license is being offered, if they are offering an exclusive license you will lose the right to license your photograph at all for however long the commercial usage license states. 

These arrangements give MPOE the right to use your photographs forever in any "any form, media or technology now known or later developed. Although you may still be able to license your photograph non-exclusively  (depending on what kind of commercial license is offered to you) you will lose forever your valuable right to license your photograph exclusively.

This competition is not recommended. 

Organisations - MPOE, Beentheredonethatgotthephoto Ltd , Rough Guides

Terri Crowther, 41, the sole director of MPOE and a single working mother originated this contest "as a way to both help travellers display images of their favourite spots on the globe as well as a way for her to reclaim her life from the march of time."

Judges - "MPOE reserves the right to select and appoint independent judges at its sole discretion, who will decide the winning Entries for the Competitions." The only Judge specifically mentioned is Hugo de Wolf "the Netherlands. Born in 1971, Hugo is a professional photographer, and founder / owner of 36clicks Creative, established in 1998."

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 and to Hugo de Wolf at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

© 2008 Pro-Imaging; Last updated on 10 June 2008

The above text may be reproduced providing the Pro-Imaging copyright notice is displayed.

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.