Work For Hire; Work For Free - at MGM Grand Hotel

traffic-light-stop MGM Grand is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in the USA. It is one of many hotels/casinos/resorts owned by MGM Resorts International. Note that although the name of the organisation has 'MGM' in its title it is no longer associated with Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

The MGM Grand Hotel/Casino is undergoing a major renovation including, according to their website, "everything from our guest rooms and casino floor to our entertainment, dining, and nightlife experiences". On completion it has to be photographed for future promotional purposes.

The 'Competition'

With regard to photography MGM Grand decided to team up with Graphistudio, a global business specialising in products targeted at photographers, in particular a range of wedding books. Instead of commissioning photographers in the normal way it was decided to launch a 'competition'.

This competition is open only to photographers who are clients of Graphistudio. Perhaps the competition is seen as a way of increasing the number of photographers who do business with them.

The Graphistudio photographers are invited to participate in the competition, to photograph certain areas of the refurbished MGM Grand Hotel on specific days, under a 'work for hire' agreement, under which none of the participating photographers are entitled to any remuneration. They are required to work for free.

However, the first, second and third place winners will receive a prize which includes a one or two night stay in the hotel with food and beverage credits etc.

Work For Hire Contract

An extract from the relevant terms and conditions of this 'contest are displayed below;

Sponsored by: MGM and Graphistudio

1. Who May Enter:

Open only to Graphistudio clients, must be 21 or over. Void where prohibited. Employees, officers and directors ( and their immediate families) of sponsor are not eligible.

2. How to Enter:

a. Go to the www.mgm.graphistudio.com and click on contest link to register for the contest.

b. Complete the registration form with all required information.

c. You must physically be at the MGM Grand between February 19th and February 22nd, 2012 in order to take the photographsto enter this contest. Photograph sessions at specific MGM Grand locations and times will be designated by Sponsor for the photo shoots.

d. You have until April 9th to submit your images for this contest

4. Work For Hire: Entrant authorizes MGM Grand Hotel, LLC and its authorized parties to reproduce, distribute, display, and create derivative works of the entry ( along with a name credit). MGM Grand Hotel, LLC, will have exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable rights and license privileges to use and reproduce in any manner and in any all distribution channels.. Entrant further agrees, upon MGM Grand Hotel, LLC's request and without additional compensation, to sign any and all necessary and appropriate documents, including but not limited to a Work for Hire Agreement.

Judging

The judges for this contest are two photographers, Yervant, a grand master photographer with AIPP and Henk Van Kooten a Master QEP Qualified European Photographer. We assume these two judges are unaware that their colleagues are required, for the purposes of this contest, to work for free.

What does this mean?

Win or lose you have worked for nothing.

You are required to agree that you will sign documents before you have seen them.

You are required to agree that MGM Grand Hotel, LLC and its authorised parties shall have the right to use your work in perpetuity for any purpose at all, without payment.

This is not a contest.

Note the phrase in paragraph 4 above of the terms and conditions: "Entrant further agrees,.....  without additional compensation, to sign any and all necessary and appropriate documents, including but not limited to a Work for Hire Agreement".  The reference to 'without additional compensation' is odd in that nowhere in the terms and conditions is there any reference to any other 'compensation'.

Perhaps the drafters of these T&Cs considered the prizes to be 'compensation', which of course they are not. Photographing commercial premises, the results of which are to be used in commercial advertising, is a business activity, not a competition.

What should I do?

Complain. We have detailed the people you can complain to in the for this 'contest'.

You can post news about this story on your various social media pages. You can reproduce all or part of this story, if you do all that we ask is that it be credited to Artists' Bill of Rights and linked directly to this page. Let your colleagues and friends know about this. If you know the judges bring this story to their attention. Bring this to the notice of your representative associations so that they may lodge a complaint too.

It's up to you now to do something.