Pro-Imaging

American Photo; Images of the Year competition 2008 ends 17 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.

"Winners may be required to sign and return an affidavit of eligibility, grant of rights, and a publicity and liability release within 14 days of notification, or alternate winners will be selected (alternate will be next highest ranked entrant). By entering this Contest and/or accepting a prize, you agree to allow Sponsor to use your name, city and state, voice and image in connection with publication of your winning entry and for promotional purposes (except where prohibited), without review, notification or approval.  "

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 

• Unclear, All photographers entering the contest retain their copyright
• Unclear, 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
  
• 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

• Unclear, The organisers free usage is time limited as per The Bill of Rights
  
• Unclear, 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
• Unclear, Entrants are not required to sign commercial usage licenses

4 Declarations

• Fail, 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

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

Conclusions

This contest fails The Bill of Rights because -

It is not possible from reading the competition rules to determine what rights an entrant is granting, to whom. and for how long. If you have any concern for your rights we strongly suggest you contact American Photo to obtain the information you need before entering the contest. Contact details are noted below.

We are unable to recommend this competition.

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Organisations - Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc., American Photo, Samsung, blurb, SmugMug, fotocommunity

Judges - "The judging will be done in two stages: The initial stage will be done by the American Photo & Imaging promo staff. The second stage will be done by a jury of outside experts selected by the editors of American Photo & Imaging." No details of this or last years judges are given.

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

© 2008 Pro-Imaging; Last updated on 26 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.