Pro-Imaging

Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk ends 23 August 2008 

The Rules of this Contest

Scott Kelby states the purpose of this contest is to celebrate the launch of his updated Lightroom 2 book. Listed below are extracts from the rules of this competition. These extracts detail the rights being claimed from entrants.

"Scott Kelby does not claim ownership of your images taken during the 2008 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk. However, we do need certain permission rights from you with respect to your image(s).

As part of your participation, you hereby give Scott Kelby, his/her heirs, legal representatives and assigns, those for whom Scott Kelby is acting and those acting with his/her authority and permission:

a) One (1) year usage rights and permissions to use, re-use, publish, and re-publish your winning image(s) you created, or reproduction hereof in color or otherwise, made through any and all media now or hereafter known for illustration, art, promotion, advertising, trade, or any other purpose whatsoever.

b) You also permit the use of any printed material in connection therewith.

c) You hereby release, discharge and agree to save harmless [photographer], his/her heirs, legal representatives or assigns, and all persons functioning under his/her permission or authority, or those for whom he/she is functioning, from any liability by virtue of any blurring, distortion, alteration, optical illusion, or use in composite form whether intentional or otherwise, that may occur or be produced in the taking of said picture or in any subsequent processing thereof, as well as any publication thereof, including without limitation any claims for libel or invasion of privacy.

d) You hereby relinquish any right that you may have to examine or approve the completed product or products or the advertising copy or printed matter that may be used in conjunction therewith or the use to which it may be applied."

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
• 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

• Pass, The organisers free usage is time limited as per The Bill of Rights
  
• Pass, 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

• 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 -

• The rules require entrants to waive moral rights
• Commercial usage can be made of the photos but there is no time limited rights managed agreement to license and limit such usage
• The rules do not state that the photos will always be credited

In effect this contest is supplying Scott Kelby with imagery from around the world to use freely for any purpose whatsoever for a year. The rules allow commercial usage of the images that Scott Kelby can profit by with no need to negotiate any license fees for the use of the imagery, and this breaches Bill of Rights condition 3.

Another major concern is with rule d) which states that the photographer will be unable to examine or approve the usage of their image; this denies them their moral rights to object to treatment of their work and to assert their right to be credited. This is unacceptable in a photo contest.

In the United States, Congress legislated for a waiver of moral rights in the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, but only by a signed, written agreement specifying the work and the precise uses to which a waiver applies. The Scott Kelby Photo Walk contest rules have made no provision for such a signed written agreement and the rule stating that entrants relinquish the right to examine, approve or object to the treatment of their work is legally invalid.

We are unable to recommend this competition. Enter a contest on the The Rights On List instead.

### 

Scott Kelby Response

We made a copy of the above report available to Scott Kelby on the 10th of August 2008. In our email to Mr Kelby we said we would be happy to correct anything in the report that was incorrect. We also said that we planned to publish the report on the 14th August, but if he wished to adjust or clarify the rules to let us know and we would delay the report for a reasonable period while the changes were made.

We regret to say we received no response from Mr Kelby regarding the above the above report.

### 

Organisations - Scott Kelby, National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), Adobe, CDW, Peachpit, Mpix, Wacom, Epson, KelbyTraining, PhotowalkPro, B&H

Judges - City Walk Leaders, Scott Kelby

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 10 August 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.