Copyright and photo competitions

[Sas]

Hello

I just had a query about photography competitions. I was thinking of entering a local diving photo competiton, my pictures aren't great but I thought 'why not?'

There are a few terms of the competition though, that I am wondering about, namly:

All copyright over the images is reliquished in favour of <LDS's name> and the competition sponsors.

and

All images submitted become to property of <LDS's name> and competition sponsors and may be used by <LDS> and sponsors

(yes there is a grammatical error but wanted to show exact phrasing).

I have a friend who is a very good photographer and enters a lot of competitions, and says those terms are bad and they should not require entrants to hand over copyright of their images. She said it is normal for a term like "by entering your pictures you agree that we can use your images without compensation blah blah" but not one that says you lose copyright.

I mean, my pictures are never going to make any money so I don't care what the LDS or sponsors do with my pictures afterwards but I am not comfortable with the whole copyright thing namely as I want the option to enter other competitions or give my pictures to other places (like I have one on wikipedia for an octopus ID) without worrying if I have rights to my own pictures. I doubt it will ever come up but still, wouldn't want any hassles over copyright (had a friend in trouble for that before). Also it doesn't specify if it is just the winning pictures or any picture you enter that loses copyright.

Wondering if my concerns are valid and what other people make of the terms of the competition?

 

[ScubaSteve]

If you want to maintain ANY control over your photos, do not enter such a competition. I think it is great that you even got as far as you did (to in fact read the terms) because I think many people (myself previously included) just email them and think how cool it would be to win and become famous . God on you for catching it and now you just have to decide how comfortable you are. I say you are right to be concerned.

 

[alcina]

Personally I don't enter anything where I give up my copyrights, no matter if the image is good or not. There's just no reason to, really.

Competitions can be written so they can use the images for various things and that they are granted a license ... but copyright? No thanks.

It's really good you read the terms - they might not even realize that there are alternatives. Many people don't understand what a copyright really is or how images can easily be licensed for various things.

From the quotes you put in, I'd say it's every image that it entered. It would be unusual for there to be two terms.