About This Organisation
British Airways t/a Airmiles
About this Organisation
British Airways plc (BA) is an airline of the United Kingdom which is based and headquartered in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways operates a second hub at Gatwick Airport and a third hub, served through its fully owned subsidiary, BA CityFlyer, at London City Airport.
The British Airways Board was established in 1971 to control the two nationalised airline corporations, BOAC and BEA, and two much smaller regional airlines, Cambrian Airways from Cardiff and Northeast Airlines from Newcastle upon Tyne. On 31 March 1974 all four companies were dissolved to form British Airways (BA). After almost 13 years as a nationalised company, British Airways was privatised in February 1987 as part of the privatisation plan by the Conservative Government of the time. The carrier soon expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian (BCAL) in 1987 and Gatwick-based carrier Dan-Air in 1992.
On 30 July 2008, British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia, a fellow oneworld partner, announced a merger plan that would result in the two airlines joining forces in an all-stock transaction while retaining their separate brands, similar to KLM and Air France in their merger agreement. On 12 November 2009, British Airways confirmed that it had reached a preliminary agreement to merge with Iberia. The agreement was confirmed on 8 April 2010, and was expected to be completed by the end of 2010. On 14 July 2010, the European Commission, granted both airlines permission to merge as well as permission to include American Airlines in co-operation on ticket prices and schedules on transatlantic routes for all three airlines. On 20 July 2010, the US Department of Transport approved the deal with American Airlines, finalising their tentative decision made on 13 February 2010. On October 6, 2010, the alliance between British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia formally began operations for the first time. Shareholders from British Airways and Iberia approved the merger on November 29, 2010, allowing the creation of the world's third largest airline by revenue. Both carriers completed their merger on January 21, 2011.
About this Report
Competitions or appeals seeking submissions of creative works from the public, works such as photos, videos, poems, music, etc., are reviewed by the Bill of Rights campaign. The reviews are to help you decide whether you should participate in the competition or appeal. The only thing you need to understand is that when you create a work (e.g. a photo) the law automatically makes you the sole beneficiary of certain rights over that work (but see note 1 below). These rights are called intellectual property rights.
Rights have a value and you are free to decide what that value is. If a person or organisation would like to use your work to promote something, you have the right to refuse permission, or to set a fee for a specific use and decide how long they may use it. More information about intellectual property rights and their value to you as an individual can be read in our Guide to Rights & Licensing. Listed on the next tab are some competitions or appeals promoted by the above organisation. For each we detail how the organisation's terms and conditions will exploit your rights to their advantage for works you submit to their competition or appeal.
A copy of this report was submitted to the organisation to help them review and change their terms and conditions. We also took the opportunity to invite them to join the Bill of Rights Supporters' Group. This would have enabled them to enjoy the benefits of being a member of a group which supports and respects others' intellectual property rights. Unfortunately the negotiations did not conclude successfully.
The main aims of the Bill of Rights Campaign are to help everyone understand that their intellectual property rights have a value and to encourage competition and appeal organisers to adopt the standards set out in the Bill of Rights for Artists.
Note 1. Rights for works created as an employee are usually owned by your employer.
Failing the Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights Standards 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.
