A Rights Grab in One Second

We were contacted recently about an unusual video contest (Beauty of a Second) organised by Montblanc. Montblanc, based in Hamburg, Germany, make writing instruments, writing accessories, leather goods and belts, jewellery, eyewear and watches.

News about this contest appeared in the Art Directors Club Italiano (ADCI) blog link. This prompted Paolo Nobile and the Art Directors Club Italiano (ADCI) to contact us in view of its extraordinary rules. We thank Paolo and ADCI for contacting us and for the subsequent helpful discussions we had with them.

Beauty of a Second

To enter this contest entrants are required to submit a video which is exactly one second long. Montblanc will judge the entries that meet their criteria and those that do will be published. Then participants are invited to make up playlists (up to 60 seconds long) from the published videos. Following this there will be playlist winners too. There are many rules in this complex contest about how winners are ultimately chosen, we will ignore all of that here - we are only interested in how the entrants intellectual property rights are affected.

The terms and conditions for this contest appear in a 10 page PDF document, remarkable both for its length and lack of clarity. The terms and conditions setting out the rights an entrant has to grant are repeated at intervals throughout the document. Sometimes they repeat the previous statements, at other times contradicting them with different statements. It is such a badly written document, lacking preciseness, conciseness and consistency, and in these respects is one of the worst we have ever seen.

We have listed below how the Montblanc terms and conditions will affect your rights if you enter their contest.

How this contest will affect your rights

1. The terms and conditions do not state you will always be credited when your work is reproduced. One of your most important moral rights is that you should be credited as the author of a work whenever it is reproduced. The Montblanc terms and conditions only say that "names may be used", not that they will be used on every occasion your entry is used/displayed/etc.

2. The terms and conditions are granting the organiser unlimited use of your work for ever. Although Montblanc mention a date of 31 December 2014, they also state that the videos can be reproduced "in whole or in part for archival purposes in perpetuity". There is no definition anywhere in the T&Cs defining what is meant by archival purposes. A lack of clarity about usage should always be treated as a warning and entries should never be submitted to such contests.

   If you do enter the contest, these terms and conditions will remove from you, in perpetuity, the exclusive right the law granted you over the use of your work. It will prevent you, for example, from ever being able to license your video exclusively in whole or as part of a work to another organisation.

3. The terms and conditions grant the organiser the right to use your work beyond that needed to promote the competition. Your work will be used for other purposes as expressed in the terms and conditions though phrases such as uses "shall include but not be limited to, use in the following" etc., etc., which, in effect, set no limits on usage. Usage of your work should be restricted solely to promoting the competition.

   If Montblanc wishes to use your work for any other purpose than promoting their competition they should negotiate with you independently of the competition. You should have the right to negotiate an appropriate fee for the specific use they want to make of your work and to set a time limit on such use. You should also have the right to refuse use of your work. For further information on fees and licensing refer to the Introduction to Rights and Licensing.

Conclusions

To summarise, this contest gives the impression that it's simply a crowdsourcing device to provide Montblanc with free creativity that they can use in perpetuity. We cannot recommend that anyone should enter a 'contest' such as this.

We do recommend that Montblanc employ a writer who is able to write terms and conditions that are simple, easily understood and that respect creators rights as set out in the Artists' Bill of Rights.

We wrote to Montblanc and sent them an adjusted set of terms and conditions for their consideration. Montblanc did not respond.

This news item is based on the full Montblanc Rights Off Report.