About This Organisation
Street Scene 2021 Photo Contest by Digital Photo
Digital Photo is part of Madavor Media. "Madavor Media’s Creative Division offers a blend of unique publications that focus on the art of photography, filmmaking and the craft of writing."
About this Report
Competitions seeking submissions of creative works – works such as photos, videos, poems, music, etc. – can be reviewed by the Artists' Bill of Rights campaign, especially if brought to our attention. Our reviews can help you decide if entering the competition is something you feel comfortable doing.
Rights have a value and you are free to decide what that value is. If a person or organisation wants to use your creative work (never call creative work "content"!) to promote their project, you have the right to either refuse permission or to negotiate your own terms, including a usage fee and a term limit, for each specific use. More information about intellectual property rights and their value to you can be read in our Guide to Rights & Licensing.
Street Scene 2021 Photo Contest
Closing date: 22 July, 2021
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The terms for this competition are essentially identical to another Madavor competition we recently reviewed,"The American Landscape 2021 Photo Contest". At that time we contacted Madavor Media regarding those terms but recieved no reply. We'll continue reasonable communication efforts.
This competition's "Official Rules" are listed at the bottom of the contest page. Be sure, also, to read the privacy policy page under the heading, "Contests, Sweepstakes and Surveys" to understand how your information will be shared with sponsors and what your opt-out choices are.
Overall, the Official Rules contain circular, unclear and confusing language as to how, and for how long, your entries will be used, and under what conditions they will be shared with sponsors. See Item #2 in our explanation below about how these terms could affect you so that you are clear about what we consider the proper usage of entries by organizers and sponsors.
You should always hold off on entering until the terms of use are made explicity clear!
First, one positive note: Street Scene is one of the very few, if any, competitions that allows entrants to add a small watermark to the bottom corner of their entry. This is quite a positive step. Everyone should be adding their name/watermark to any image they post to the web, particularly on social media. Read why here.
What we do NOT like is that the following language is vague, circular and confusing:
By submitting an Entry, entrant acknowledges and agrees that Sponsors may obtain many Entries in connection with this Contest and/or other contests staged and/or promoted by the Sponsors, and that such Entries may be similar or identical in theme, idea, format or other respects to other Entries submitted in connection with this Contest and/or other contests sponsored by the Sponsors or submitted for other reasons or other materials developed by the Sponsors. Entrant waives any and all claims entrant may have had, may have, and/or may have in the future, that any Entry and/or other works accepted, reviewed and/or used by the entrant may be similar to his/her Entry, or that any compensation is due to entrant in connection with such Entry or other works used by Sponsors.
Furthermore, we want to know what, "except as otherwise noted herein", refers to:
USE OF ENTRY:
By submitting an entry, entrant grants the Sponsors and their designees an irrevocable, royalty-free, nonexclusive, worldwide perpetual license to use the entry and his/her name, city and state of residence for credit purposes in Sponsors’ online galleries, without further compensation, notification or permission, unless prohibited by law. In addition, each winner grants to the Sponsors and their designees an irrevocable, royalty-free, nonexclusive, worldwide perpetual license to use and distribute the entry (as submitted, or as cropped by the Sponsors), and his/her name, city and state of residence for credit purposes, in any and all media now or hereafter known, including without limitation in Digital Photo, Imaging Resource, and any Madavor Media magazines for purposes of promotion of this Contest except as otherwise stated herein, without further compensation, notification or permission, unless prohibited by law.(emphasis is ours)
Finally, the organizer is claiming unlimited, perpetual usage for Digital Photo and Madavor's affiliated publications, their sponsors and their sponsors' designees without acknowledging certain restrictions that we ourline in our principles.
HOW THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS WILL AFFECT YOU
The following notes explain how the above terms and conditions affect your rights..
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The terms and conditions are unclear about how your work will be used. Never submit works to a competition or appeal without knowing how the terms and conditions will affect your rights.
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The terms and conditions may be granting the organiser unlimited use of your work forever. For all entries, a usage time limit of 3 years or less should be set with use limited solely to promoting the competition or appeal. It is permissable to use winning works without a time limit but only in a dedicated and permanent winners gallery hosted on the organizer's website and exclusively for the purpose of promoting the competition if is of a recurring nature.
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Because these hese terms and conditions are unclear, they may possibly be allowing the organiser or their designees the right to use your work beyond that needed to promote the competition or appeal. Usage of your work should be restricted solely to promoting the competition or appeal. You should have the right to negotiate an appropriate fee for a specific use and for a specific time limit that is unrelated to the promotion of the competition. And, you should always have the right to opt out when a use is not specifically used to promote the competition. For further information on fees and licensing refer to the Introduction to Rights and Licensing.
For further guidance refer to our Bill of Rights for Artists, particularly our Bill of Rights Principles.
SPONSORS
Bay Photo, Gura Gear, Anthropics, expo disc 2.0, FlashBender, Imaging Resource, MK Controls.
MAKE YOUR CONCERNS KNOWN
Social media is an effective voice! Express your opinion to the organiser and sponsors via social media. Urge Madavor and the sponsors to adopt the principles set out in the Artists' Bill of Rights.
The Artists' Bill of Rights campaign depends on your active support!
Your advocacy does make a difference!
About the Artists' Bill of Rights
The Artists' Bill of Rights principles for Creative Competitions
Competitions which meet all the standards set out in the Bill of Rights For Artists do not do any of the following -
- claim copyright
- claim exclusive use
- seek waiving of moral rights
- fail to give a credit for all free usage
- add, alter, or remove metadata from submissions
- seek usage rights other than for promoting the contest and no other purpose. Note that a book, posters, cards, or a calendar are seen as legitimate ways of promoting the contest and defraying costs
- seek free usage rights in excess of 3 years
- use the submissions commercially without the entrant's agreement, and such commercial usage is to be subject to a freely negotiated license independently of the competition.
- make it a condition of winning that an entrant must sign a commercial usage agreement
- fail to publish all documents on the competition website that an entrant may have to sign
- fail to name the judges for this or last year's competition
- fail to explicitly state all the organisations who will acquire rights to the submissions
- set a closing date more than 18 months after the contest launch date
- fail to make clear statements of rights claimed and how submissions are used.
We have written an Organisers Guide to the Bill of Rights to help organisers draft terms and conditions that respect the rights of entrants and at the same time provide legal protection for the organiser.
© Bill of Rights Supporters Group
The above text may be reproduced providing a link is given to the Bill of Rights For Artists.
Any text reproduced in italics in this report has been extracted from a competition or appeal 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. We look forward to hearing from you.
