About This Organisation
International Photographer of the Year 2017
by
International Photographer of the Year
About the Competition
"IPOTY creates new opportunities to showcase the best photographic work and introduce leading talents to the world of contemporary photography. We celebrate creativity and ambition, and we support artists to develop and present their work through competition." WIIN, IPOTY,
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 Artists' Bill of Rights campaign. The reviews are to help you decide whether or not you should participate in the competition or appeal. When you create a work (e.g. a photo) the law automatically makes you the sole beneficiary of certain rights over that work. These rights are called intellectual property rights. Note: Rights for works created in the course of employment are usually owned by the employer (i.e. works for hire).
Rights have a value and you are free to decide what that value is. If a person or organisation wants to use your work to promote something, you have the right to refuse permission or to set a fee for a specific use. More information about intellectual property rights and their value to you can be read in our Guide to Rights & Licensing.
Special Note
On March 13, 2018, PDN highlighted troubling issues with this competition:
"INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR AWARDS A SCAM? JUDGES RAISE ALARM AND ORGANIZERS GO SILENT"
as did PetaPixel:
"Photo Contest Judges Raise Alarm: We Didn’t Judge Anything…"
Briefly, one of our Pro-Imaging.org photographers, Tariq Dajani, had been contacted by the IPOTY organizer to be one of the 2017 judges, and Tariq agreed. However, by the time the judging had closed and the winners were announced, Tariq had never been given entries to judge. Perplexed, Tariq contacted some other judges to see if their experiences had been similar. They were.
The details of how this interesting story unfolded can be read in the two story links above.
"The contest states that the winner was selected from 4,380 entries. Based on that stated figure, it seems the contest took in between $65,700 and $131,400 in entry fees. The grand prizes for the professional and amateur categories were $2,500 and $1,500, respectively. That’s a total of $4,000." ~ PetaPixel, March 13, 2018
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
One must create an account in order to see the T/C's. The website has been reformated since the competition closed. The very brief terms, in quotes below, were taken from the WIIN website listing for IPOTY.
"Images will be used strictly in connection to the awards and will not be used for any other marketing purposes other than to promote International Photographer of the Year."
HOW THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS WILL AFFECT YOU
The following notes explain how the above terms and conditions affect your rights in respect of any works you submit to the above competition or appeal.
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Although the very brief terms and conditions begin to be in line with our principles, they are not detailed enough to be entirely useful. According to our principles, all entries must have a 3-year limit on promotional usage except in the case of a dedicated winners' gallery on the competition website devoted soley to archiving winning and short-listed entries.
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The terms and conditions are only available if you register with the organisation. No one should have to register with an organisation in order to read the terms and conditions for a competition or appeal. Avoid such competitions or appeals.
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Becaue of the valid questions raised concerning the authenticity of the judging of this competition, and because the terms and conditions are only available if one registers, this competition is a definite Rights Off competition.
- Beware of competitions with the word "International" in the title that have no credible sponsorship. Anyone can use the word, "International", as a headline, but without recognizible sponsorship, tread very carfully. Contact the organizer and/or some of the judges and listen to your gut feeling.
For further guidance please read the Bill of Rights for Artists, particularly our Bill of Rights Principles.
SPONSORS
unknown
CONTACT
We reached out to the organizer on March 14, 2018, and are awaiting a response. You may use the following contact email: , or use the website contact form.
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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 Artists Bill of Rights.
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.
