Rights Grab Notice Distributed 

at Lord Mandelson's IP Office

26 February 2010

Pro-Imaging representatives attended a meeting with the United Kingdom's IP Office today to discuss photographers concerns with the Digital Economy Bill.  Lord Mandelson's department has responsibility for the UK IP Office. In view of the fact that Lord Mandelson's department is happy to join with Rupert Murdoch's News International and abuse photographers rights the opportunity was taken to publish a Rights Grab Notice.

This Rights Grab Notice set out our views of this latest Rights Grab by a government department and it was distributed to all the participants at this morning's meeting at the IPO. The content of the Notice is displayed below.

Department of Business, Innovation & Skills

Involved in Rights Grabbing

Pro Imaging is an organisation run by professional photographers to represent the needs and interests of professional photographers world wide.

We have waged a two year campaign against Rights Grabbing photographic competitions. A campaign which has seen the naming and shaming of a large number of organisations whose competition terms and conditions are designed to relieve entrants of their intellectual and moral rights.

The Department for Innovation, Business & Skills has been added to our “Rights Off” list because their competition, Science: [So what? So everything], is not compatible with our Bill of Rights. One paragraph of the T&Cs states:

By entering, all entrants licence News International, the Department for Innovation, Business and Skills, and their authorised representatives, a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to publish and use each entry (including all images and text submitted by the entrant as part of the entry process) in any and all media (including, without limitation, print and online) in perpetuity.

Our UK membership have expressed concern and many have written to their MPs because they feel that the Digital Economy Bill shows no understanding of intellectual property rights in relation to photography and that it will make unauthorised commercial exploitation of their images more likely.

Lord Mandelson’s own department being caught abusing photographer’s rights and helping to provide free photographic content, in perpetuity and worldwide, for commercial exploitation by News International can only increase these concerns.

For more information about this competition and our campaign read our report.