Pro-Imaging

The UK Lottery Fund; Postcards From The Park ends 1 August 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.

"Ownership of the copyright in the photograph(s) shall remain with you but by entering your photograph(s) in the competition you accept that the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Big Lottery Fund and GreenSpace will have the worldwide, irrevocable and perpetual right, without additional payment or permission, to use the photograph(s) and your name for any competition related promotional purposes in any media.

You must also accept that in using your photograph(s) it/they may need to be cropped and you waive any right that you have to object to such treatment of the photograph(s) even if you deem it to be derogatory.

You must also accept that in using your photograph(s) you will be credited as the author of the photograph(s) and you will not object to your name being associated with your photograph(s) or any cropped version of it or them."

"The photos will be turned into postcards for distribution at Lottery-funded venues across the UK" 

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
• Fail, The contest does not require any entrants to waive moral rights
• Pass, Rules state 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, 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
• 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 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. However, Heritage Lottery Fund, Big Lottery Fund, and GreenSpace, have gained the right to freely use all submitted images for ever in any medium they choose.

Note that entrants lose their right to object to treatment of their image even if they deem it  to be derogatory treatment. It is absolutely unacceptable to demand that anyone should accept such a condition, it is removing from them a right which the law freely conferred on them. 

This contest is not recommended.

Note that this competition is being promoted in regional and national media as well as through the  Amateur Photographer and Digital Photographer magazines.  Pro-Imaging are very disappointed that photography magazines are promoting a contest that removes an entrants moral right to object to derogatory treatment, and allows the organisers free usage of the images forever.

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Organisations - Heritage Lottery Fund, Big Lottery Fund, GreenSpace

Judges - 

Carole Souter, Director of Heritage Lottery Fund

Linda Quinn, Director of Communications and Marketing at Big Lottery Fund

Mike McCartney, photographer

Paul Bramhill, Chief Executive of GreenSpace

Contact - Send enquiries 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 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

© 2008 Pro-Imaging; Last updated on 7 July 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.