In May 2011 Canon USA launched a new promotion, Project Imagin8tion. The promotion is, as many promotions are, a photography competition, but to give it an added appeal Canon formed a partnership with award winning Hollywood film director, Ron Howard. This competition is different from the usual run of the mill competition in that the entrants are invited to take photographs that represent any one of eight themes, then the winning photo submitted for each theme will be used by Ron Howard as the inspiration for creating a short film. Great idea, but the execution of the Canon idea is far from inspiring.

Project Imagin8tion Rules

The problem with the competition becomes immediately obvious just by reading the rules, in particular rule 8. You can read all of this ponderous rule at the above link if you wish but to keep things simple we have extracted the key phrases of rule 8 here;

"Entry constitutes an irrevocable grant of permission to Sponsor and its parent companies etc., etc., ... to use the entrants name ... and the photograph, ... including without limitation modifying, altering, excerpting or amending the Photograph and/or creating derivative works based on the Photograph or any component thereof, for purposes of trade, publicity or promotion and any other purpose, in all media and formats whether now known or later developed, throughout the world in perpetuity, without any notice, permission or compensation ..."

The Sponsor is Canon USA Inc. In other words, this makes clear that every image submitted to this contest can be used by Canon USA (and several other organisations) "for purposes of trade, publicity or promotion and any other purpose". Whether this rule reflects Canon's actual intent or not the rule as worded grabs unlimited rights to use every submission for ever, and for any purpose.

Letter to the President of Canon USA

The President of Canon USA is Yoroku Adachi and we decided to write to him to explain our concern with the rules, that to promote the contest and film it is unecessary to acquire all the rights set out in the rules. In our letter we made the following points -

"Project Imagin8tion is a fine idea to promote the Canon brand but the concept is seriously undermined by the terms and conditions set out in the official rules published at http://canon.thismoment.com/rules.html."

"The rules require all entrants to grant Canon, and many other associated companies, unlimited rights to use the submitted photographs “for purposes of trade, publicity or promotion and any other purpose” in perpetuity."

"On the Canon global website their corporate philosophy of kyosei is set out as "All people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future." and also goes on to explain that “the presence of imbalances in our world in such areas as trade, income levels and the environment hinders the achievement of kyosei”. The rules of this competition reflect an imbalance between the way in which an entrant’s intellectual property rights should be respected, and how they are actually exploited by the competition rules. We hope this unlimited exploitation as set out in the rules is inadvertent and is not Canon’s actual intent."

"We ask you to consider changing the terms and conditions to a) only use the winning entries for project Imagin8tion, b) only use the winning entries for purposes directly connected with the making and promotion of the film to be created by Ron Howard, and no other purpose.""

This letter was airmailed to Canon HQ and simultaneously emailed to Canon USA public relations on 24 May 2011. A separate letter was emailed to the film director Ron Howard (enclosing a copy of the letter to Mr Adachi) urging that the rules be modified as noted in the extract above.

The Response from Canon and Ron Howard

Complete silence. Having written a polite letter to both parties, explaining our concerns we did expect a response, even if it were only to explain why they would not or could not change the rules. Most people would describe deliberately ignoring a polite letter of complaint as at the very least disrespectful.

Why did Canon USA not respond to a straightforward letter of complaint sent to their President?

• Is it because they don't to respond to complaints as a matter of routine? 
• Is it because they didn't understand the complaint?
• Or is it because they do want to use the submitted photographs "for purposes of trade, publicity or promotion and any other purpose, in all media and formats whether now known or later developed, throughout the world in perpetuity, without any notice, permission or compensation?"

We can't answer these questions, but Canon can.

A new FAQ appears, then it's instantly dis-owned

One result of the complaints (we at Artists' Rights were not alone in complaining) is that Canon USA decided to post a set of FAQ's on the Project Imagin8ation website. The most important FAQ, the one dealing with the entrants intellectual property rights, appears as follows -

Q: Who owns the copyright in my photo(s)?
A: You do, of course! It is never Canon’s intention to acquire the copyright in any of the images that are entered. Canon USA advocates and supports artists and artists’ rights. We would like to make it very clear that the creator of any submission in the “Project Imagin8ion” contest retains ownership of that submission – period. However, we do need to display the images, promote them in the gallery, and otherwise facilitate the administration of the contest so we do need to license certain rights from you - efforts were taken to restrict the scope of the licenses as much as possible, keeping in mind the legal realities of conducting a contest like this one. We will however own the copyright in the final film that may incorporate your image, but this in no way limits your copyright in your own photo.

Given that we never complained that Canon was acquiring the entrants' copyright this FAQ completely fails to address the concerns that we put to them. In addition Canon is wrong when they imply that their rules have no effect on the entrants copyright - they do! The entrant loses the exclusive right the law gave them to control how their work is used. The entrant has also lost their right to license exclusive use of their photo. Canon really should know better than this, presumably the FAQ was written by someone who does not fully understand how copyright works.

Bizarrely, the above FAQ is immediately followed by a Canon statement that states the FAQ has no legal standing, that the rules alone govern the contest -

Please note: This FAQ is provided solely as a courtesy for prospective contest participants and is not intended to, and will not, modify or amend the Official Rules. Nor will any posting by anyone associated with the contest change the Official Rules. Please make sure you read the Official Rules carefully as they alone govern this contest. Reading this FAQ or any other posting is NOT a substitute for reading the Official Rules. We may update this FAQ from time to time based upon recurring questions that we see.

So having published the FAQ Canon now says you should ignore it, it's what the official rules say that count, and the rules say that all entrants images will be used "for purposes of trade, publicity or promotion and any other purpose, in all media and formats whether now known or later developed, throughout the world in perpetuity, without any notice, permission or compensation."

Canon USA advocates and supports artists and artists’ rights

The above headline is an extract from what Canon says in its FAQ about the entrants' copyright - we welcome and applaud this statement. All that Canon need do now is to adjust the competition rules to bring them into line with this declaration. Canon will have access to the best legal minds available and we are amazed that they have been unable to create a set of terms and conditions that match Canon's aspiration.

All they need do is change the rules to say that entrants grant the following license in respect of their submissions -

• winning images will be used in the creation of one film by Ron Howard, and be used in perpetuity for the promotion, advertising and marketing of that film, as well as for promoting this competition, and no other purpose,
• non-winning images will be used to promote the competition, and no other purpose, such usage ceasing two years following the announcement date of the winners,
• that the license will be non-exclusive.

We know that legal people should be able to make a much better job of wording the above than we can. If you are a legal person and would like to supply replacement rules that would set out what Canon USA require in order to promote the Imagin8tion competition and film then please send it to us and we will happy to pass it on to Canon, with a full credit of course. Alternatively contact us and we can supply you with a Canon USA email address to send your revised rules to.

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