Pro-Imaging

Focal Monthly Photo Contest - Monthly

The Rules of this Contest

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

"By entering the Contest, entrants grant Sponsor a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide right and license to reproduce, publish, display and otherwise use their submitted image(s), credited with entrant’s full name and city and state/province/country of residence, online and in print or any other media for purposes of editorials, exhibition, advertising, publicity and promotion of the Contest and Sponsor’s publications and products, without additional compensation or permission, unless prohibited by law."

"Notice to Winner:  The potential winners will be notified by e-mail within fourteen (14) days after the close of the Contest Entry Period and may be asked to execute and return to Sponsor an affidavit of eligibility and release within fourteen (14) days of attempted notification.  Non-compliance within that time may result in disqualification and the selection of an alternate winner.  Return of any prize/prize notification as undeliverable will result in disqualification and an alternate winner will be selected based upon the judging criteria."

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
  
• Fail, 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
• Pass, 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

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

Conclusions

This contest has failed to meet the Bill of Rights conditions in a number of important respects.

Firstly, to be a winner you may be asked to complete a document, but nowhere is that document detailed on the website. Such documents are really extensions of the contests terms and conditions and the Bill of Rights requires them to be on display so that you can see what they require of you before you enter. Practices such as this are quite unacceptable, no one should enter contests until they have read all the terms and conditions.

Secondly Elsevier Inc. grant themsleves extensive usage rights including commercial rights without limit of time. Your photographs can be used by them forever as they wish. Although you will still be able to license your image non exclusively you have lost for ever the right to effect an exclusive license of you image.

This contest is not recommended. 

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Organisations - Elsevier Inc., Focal Press

Judges - This is a mix of public voting and a panel of "Focal Press photography editors and/or “special guest” judges indicated on the Contest webpage, whose decisions are final." We have looked at the Contest webpage and it said the June 2008 prize would be awarded by Damien Lovegrove, a photographer, and that Philip Andrews would award the July 2008 Grand Prize. Philip Andrews, an Australian photographer, has books published by Focal Press.

Contact -  If you would like to write to the organiser with your views of this contest or questions send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

© 2008 Pro-Imaging; Last updated on 9 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.