Pro-Imaging

Canadian Geographic 24th Annual Photo Contest ends 30 September 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.

"Publication

Winners' names and photographs will be published in a future issue of Canadian Geographic and on www.canadiangeographic.ca. Canadian Geographic reserves the non-exclusive right to publish any entry and/or use any entry in promotional material. Model releases are the responsibility of the entrant and must be available in the event the photo is a winner. All photos will be credited to the photographer."

"Copyright Notice

With regard to any photograph submitted to this contest, you, or the owner of copyright in the photograph, retain all copyright. By uploading or submitting any photograph to this contest, you grant (or warrant that the owner of such materials expressly grants) Canadian Geographic Enterprises and licensors a world-wide, royalty-free, irrevocable and non-exclusive right and license to use, copy, adapt, transmit, communicate, publicly display and perform, distribute and create compilations and derivative works or merchandise from any such submitted photograph to promote the contest. You represent and warrant that you have the right to grant the license set out above. Winners in the categories of Water and Canadian Parks also grant(or warrant that the owner of such materials expressly grants)the Canadian Museum of Nature and Parks Canada a royalty-free, irrevocable and non-exclusive right and license to use, copy, adapt, transmit, communicate, publicly display and perform, distribute and create compilations and derivative works or merchandise from any such submitted photograph to promote the contest"

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, 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/partners/etc 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

• Pass, A statement clarifying the commercial usage position is present as per The Bill of Rights
• 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 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, "Canadian Geographic Enterprises and licensors" have gained the right to use all submitted images for ever in any medium they choose.

We are unable to recommend this competition. 

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Organisations - Canadian Geographic, Canadian Sailing Expeditions, Nikon, Epson, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Parks Canada, Canadian Museum of Nature 

Judges - Last year's judges were:

David Barbour (professional photographer and Canadian Geographic contributor)

Suzanne Morin (Creative Director, Canadian Geographic Enterprises)

Kathy Frankiewicz (Photo Editor, Canadian Geographic Enterprises)

Contact - Send enquiries and views about this contest to Canadian Geographic Magazine and/or to the Canadian Geographic PhotoClub

© 2008 Pro-Imaging; Last updated on 29 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.