A Warning About Photo Contests

[Evolute]

I just posted an article on my website, warning people about photo contests to avoid. Many photo contests that seem free to enter actually come with a steep, hidden cost. I explain it, in detail, here:

http://naturography.com/photo-contests-to-avoid/

I hope this saves some of you from getting taken advantage of.

Cheers.

[sambo.]

+1.

there is a reason i don't enter too many picture competitions.

by and large, they simply represent a sneaky method for corporations to acquire a great many, high quality images for next to nothing.

read those Rules Of Entry people! the only rights they should be asking for are the rights to use the picture to promote the competition or to use in an exhibition of the competition winners.

can i request this thread gets stickied?

[T. Erdelyi]

There is one site I used to go to that held photo contests in different catagories a couple of times a month.

They specifically said that the photographer/ owner of the picture retained all rights and copyrights to the photo and that no one could reproduce the pic without the express permission of the photographer/owner.

They did occasionally offer prizes from supporters of forum, I guess it mostly was a forum for critiquin' pictures and photographers styles.

I'll have to look it up and see if I can find it again.

[DoctaD]

Be careful, also, of Web Posting sites like Google's Picasa:

They give a mixed message regarding their use of your material.

In the terms of service link, they say this:
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

Then, on another legal post they say:

Picasa Legal Notices

Your Intellectual Property Rights
Google does not claim any ownership in any of the content, including any text, data, information, images, photographs, music, sound, video, or other material, that you upload, transmit or store in your Picasa account. We will not use any of your content for any purpose except to provide you with the Service.

I'm not sure what the actual legal truth is on this, but one should consider carefully before posting anything they don't to give up the rights to.

[sambo.]

be warned, Facebook has a similar policy.

in 5-10 years time, expect to see Facebook Clip Art CDs on sale. full of clip art and pix snaggled from guess where.....

[Ballenxj]

Evolute, Thanks for posting this warning. This has been discussed for years now on "Photography Specific" forums, but it's always good to expand on this knowledge.

be warned, Facebook has a similar policy.

in 5-10 years time, expect to see Facebook Clip Art CDs on sale. full of clip art and pix snaggled from guess where.....

I've noted that Facebook has become increasingly invasive. I joined under pier pressure, and now am thinking about opting out.
This leads me to another thought;
What do we really know about the new browser Google Chrome?
I was thinking that with Google's level of knowledge on being invasive, can we expect from their browser to be highly invasive as well?
I have noticed that a lot of the new freeware try to change your default browser to Google Chrome (or other) if you are not careful and un check that option.
I guess the trick here is to "always" be on the lookout for the "hook" that seems to be so prevalent on the net.
-Bruce

[Bigdumplings]

oops delete