Welsh Assembly Government

t/a The Valleys Partnership

About this Organisation

The Valleys Partnership website claim they are comprised of over 30 partners, including the Welsh Assembly Government, Local Authorities, Assembly-sponsored agencies and third-sector organisations. Their purpose in life is to promote tourism in the Welsh Valleys.

According to terms and conditions on The Valleys Partnership website any references to 'We', 'Us' and 'Our' shall have the following meaning - The Welsh Assembly Government established by the 1998 Government of Wales Act and operating from headquarters currently located at:National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff CF99 1NA.

In other words, The Valleys Partnership is in effect, The Welsh Government.

About this Report

Photo competitions and image appeals are notified to us by our contributors from around the world. Listed below are some photo competitions or image appeals promoted by the above organisation which have not met the standards set out in the Bill of Rights.

If the terms and conditions of a contest or appeal do not comply with the standards set out in the Bill of Rights a report such as this produced and a link to it is added to the Rights Off List. We have listed in this report the terms and conditions not in compliance with the Bill of Rights to help the organiser carry out a review. The extracted terms and conditions are shown below in italics.

For advice on why failing to comply with the standards set out in the Bill of Rights is a serious issue please read this article.

If at some future date a competition organiser decides to join the Bill of Rights Supporters Group, thus ensuring that all their contests will comply with the Bill of Rights, the Rights Off report for that organisation's competition(s) will be unpublished.

The purpose of the Bill of Rights Campaign is to provide education to the public about the value of rights and to encourage photography competition organisers to adopt the standards set out in the Bill of Rights.

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Capture the Heart and Soul of Wales

Closing Date 10th July 2010

RULES (as notified to Pro-Imaging on 10 June 2010)

The competition is seeking digital photographs and/or short films and uses the following terms and conditions (in italics) regarding the intellectual property rights of the entrant.

Following our original complaint on 12 may 2010 to Alun Ffred Jones, Minister for the Department of Heritage in the Welsh Assembly Government, Pro-Imaging were notified on 10 June 2010 by his department that they had considered our "campaign's position and have amended the terms and conditions of the competition."

We list the relevant extracts from the new terms and conditions below, followed by Pro-Imaging's comments about them.

2. Your Copyright and Moral Rights

1. Sustrans and The Valleys Heart and Soul respects photographers rights and does not claim copyright for images you submit to this contest, you will retain full copyright in each entry.

2. In addition your moral rights are respected. Whenever your image is published by Sustrans and The Valleys Heart and Soul (and its partners) you will be credited.  Failure to publish a credit due to error or oversight shall not be deemed a breach of this condition.

3. Use of Images

3.1 By entering this contest You agree agree that any (winning or shortlisted) image You submit may be used by Sustrans and The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales (and its partners) for marketing and promotional purposes of this contest and future marketing campaigns (including press, magazines, posters, adverts and websites) and no other purpose, these uses include;

1. judging the competition,
2. displaying the entries on the competition website, news sites, blogs and Flickr page (and websites of partners),
3. displaying the entries at public exhibitions to promote the competition,
4. displaying the entries in a book, newspaper, magazine or similar,
5. publishing the entries on posters to promote future Sustrans and The Valleys campaigns,
6. publishing the entries on postcards to promote future Sustrans and The Valleys campaigns,
7. publishing the entries on adverts to promote future Sustrans and The Valleys campaigns,
8. cropping and re-sizing the image as necessary to fit pre-defined formats to promote the campaign,
9. sub-licensing the entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the campaign and any related exhibition,
10. inclusion within any materials promoting the competition or any exhibition of images from this competition organized by Sustrans and The Valleys Heart and Soul

3.2 You hereby grant Sustrans and The Valleys Heart and Soul a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence in each Entry throughout the world  in all media for the uses described in 3.1 above for five years following the date of announcement of the winners.

3.5 Should any image uses beyond those needed to promote the contest arise you will be contacted and given the opportunity to negotiate any such usage with the parties concerned independently of the competition.

Note that Sustrans referred to in the above rules is a UK sustainable transport charity.

PRO-IMAGING COMMENT

The revised terms and conditions are an improvement on those published when the contest was launched, the original terms and conditions sought the entrants copyright. However, the new terms and conditions require entrants of winning or shortlisted images to grant The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales and Sustrans usage beyond that needed to promote the contest.

Winning and shortlisted images can be used as follows;

1. by The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales and Sustrans for future marketing campaigns (including press, magazines, posters, adverts and websites)

2. publishing the entries on posters to promote future The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales and Sustrans campaigns,

3. publishing the entries on postcards to promote future The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales and Sustrans campaigns,

4. publishing the entries on adverts to promote future The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales and Sustrans campaigns,

The above uses are not constrained to promoting only the competition; the images are being used to promote the interests of the two named organisations, The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales and Sustrans, without any payment to the creator of the winning or shortlisted submissions, in contravention of the Bill of Rights.

The reader is referred to the Bill of Rights for more detail regarding the above issues.

Note that The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales, otherwise known as The Valley's Partnership, consists of over thirty partners, including the Welsh Assembly Government, Local Authorities, Assembly-sponsored agencies and third-sector organisations.

In effect the new rules still permit all winning and shortlisted images to be used for marketing purposes by all the organisations concerned (over 30 of them) just as before with the exception of the five year limit. We are disappointed that a government should conduct its business in this fashion by seeking to grab rights from those of its citizens who do not understand the value of their rights, or even that they are being exploited.

It is also very disappointing that a member of Magnum Photos, David Hurn, is one of the judges along with Welsh director Ryan Andrews.

Pro-Imaging have written again to the Welsh Assembly Government and on 10 June 2010 we submitted the above complaints as well as a Freedom of Information request as follows;

To list all the organisations that collectively, form The Valleys Partnership, also known as The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales and to provide for each organisation that is a partner in The Valleys Partnership;

1.       Its name,

2.       Purpose,

3.       Whether, private, public, third sector, or other category,

4.       Source of funding, public, private, or both,

5.       Total funding/income in the last accounting year.

This report will continue to be updated as events unfold.

SPONSORS

None listed.

CONTACT 

Complain to the Welsh Minister responsible for tourism, this is Alun Ffred Jones, Minister for the Department of Heritage in the Welsh Assembly Government, and his email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Pro-Imaging have again notified the Welsh Government about the publishing of this report and our criticism of the new rules.

To visit the competition website click the competition title above, note that the competition link may cease to work at some point after the competition results are announced.

You can help the Bill of Rights campaign by complaining to the organiser urging them to change their terms and conditions.  If time is at a premium for you we have prepared a complaint email which you can copy and send to the organiser. Alternatively, or as well as, you can submit the free image we have prepared to register your complaint simply by entering the free image to the contest. The free image can also be used to test the competition to determine if it is stripping metadata and then submit the results of the test to a survey.

The Bill of Rights campaign depends on your active support, your help will make a difference.

Updated on 10 June 2010

The Bill of Rights Standards for Photography Competitions

Competitions which meet all the standards set out in the Bill of Rights do not do any of the following -

© Bill of Rights Supporters Group

The above text may be reproduced providing a link is given to the Bill of Rights For Photography Competitions.

Any text reproduced above in italics has been extracted from a competition website for the purposes of review.

Organisations who would like to be promoted as a Bill of Rights Supporter and have their competitions promoted on the Rights On List can use this contact form. One of the campaign team will get in touch with you.