Pro-Imaging

Oregon Blue Book Photo Contest ends 6 October 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. Note that the primary function of this contest is to obtain free imagery for the Oregon State's Blue Book, the entrants prize is to have their images published freely forever by the Oregon Secretary of State without compensation.

"Winning photographs will be published on the front and back covers of the 2009-2010 Oregon Blue Book.

All entries will become part of the Archives Division’s permanent collection of Oregon photographs. Entries cannot be returned. Selected entries may be exhibited at the Archives Building or on the Oregon State Archives Web site following publication of the 2009-2010 Oregon Blue Book. Photographs submitted to the Cover Photo Contest but not selected for the cover may be chosen for use elsewhere in the Blue Book with full credit given to the photographer.

I hereby grant to the Secretary of State the unrestricted right to use reproductions of my photograph(s) in the Oregon Blue Book, and in associated uses (advertising, Web site, etc.), without compensation."

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
• Fail, 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
• Fail, 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, 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
• 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 -

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, the Oregon Secretary of State has 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 - Oregon State

Judges - "A committee designated by the Secretary of State will make recommendations on the selection of winning photographs. Secretary of State Bill Bradbury will make the final selections." No details of the judges on the committee are given.

Contact - Send enquiries about this contest to Blue Book and to Bill Bradbury, the Oregon Secretary of State at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

© 2008 Pro-Imaging; Last updated on 4 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.