Pro-Imaging

L'Oréal Colour Trophy New Zealand 2008 - end date not published

The Rules of this Contest

Firstly we would like to thank the New Zealand Advertising & Illustrative Photographers Association (AIPA) for sending the details of this contest to Pro-Imaging.

This is a very high profile competition for hair salons where, as part of the entry terms, the hair dresser signs over "all future copyright" in any images they submit. The images are often taken by photographers who have never even seen the entry form, and therefore have no chance to object. And obviously the hair dressers have little or no comprehension of photographers rights - so they sign the form without thinking.

At the time of writing this report (10th June 2008) the contest website does not display the rules of this competition. However we have listed below extracts from the rules of this competition sent to us by AIPA and these extracts detail the rights being claimed from entrants.

Rule 10 states that “All entrants agree that the future copyright of any supplied imagery belongs to L’Oreal Professional and is not permitted to be submitted to other competitions”

Rule 16 states that “All entry photographs and digital images become the property of L’Oreal Professional and will not be returned to entrants.”

Rule 16 continues “Photography from the L'Oreal Professional Colour Trophy photo shoot (whether submitted or not) cannot be published AT ANY TIME BEFORE OR AFTER THE AWARDS ARE JUDGED, in any form (electronically, print or otherwise) without express written permission of L'Oreal Professional.”

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 

• Fail, All photographers entering the contest retain their copyright
• Unclear, The contest does not require any entrants to waive moral rights
• Fail, A credit is always given to the photographer when the image is published
  
• Unclear, 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

• Unclear, 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

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

Conclusions

Firstly we would like to thank the New Zealand Advertising & Illustrative Photographers Association (AIPA) for sending the details of this contest to Pro-Imaging.

This is a very high profile competition for hair salons where, as part of the entry terms, the hair dresser signs over "all future copyright" in any images they submit. The images are often taken by photographers who have never even seen the entry form, and therefore have no chance to object. And obviously the hair dressers have little or no comprehension of photographers rights - so they sign the form without thinking.

If you are a photographer be very wary of any hairdressers approaching you to take photographs. Prepare a form on which you state that the copyright in all images shot for them rests with you.

Mention to the hairdresser contests such as this one and make it clear to them that they have no legal right to assign your copyright to another body or person. Then get them to sign the form before handing over the photographs. Alternatively you could simply decide not to do the photography at all to avoid any risk that your copyright might be infringed.

If the photographer follows the above procedure by requiring the hairdresser sign a form that states copyright belongs to the photographer, the hairdresser does not own the copyright and has no legal right to assign that copyright to another person or organisation. Therefore L’Oreal's claim in such cases would be completely invalid, and should L’Oreal use such imagery the photographer may take action on the basis of copyright infringement.

This contest is claiming copyright for all images submitted by the entrants and for that reason alone fails The Bill of Rights. This means all entrants lose all rights to their images and they can never use them again ever unless they seek permission from L'Oreal Professional.

Pro-Imaging would advise anyone never to submit images to contests which claim copyright.

This contest is not recommended.

Organisations - L'Oréal

Judges - Not stated on the website.

Contact -  If you would like to write to L'Oréal to express your view of this contest here is the contact form - ask your note to be directed to Tanya Abbot, Tanya is the Communications Manager at L'Oréal

© 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.