Hi there,

Many apologies for posting this here, as I couldn't find a suitable category. I just want to warn photographers about the the Travel Photography Competition being run by Nexus Media via their website www.worldtravelguide.net.

Buried deep in the terms and conditions they are outrageously grabbing all ownership and copyright for any photo entered into the competition but then unbelievably asking the photographer to indemnify them against any legal consequence of Nexus using the image! They want all digital entries to be 300dpi to ensure they can use them and sell them to other print media.

You can read the T&C's at http://www.worldtravelguide.net/photo-comp...onditions.ehtml

Again, apologies for posting here but just want to avoid any shooters getting their images stolen.

Steve

The BBC are just as bad, you can submit stuff to be shown for free, they get rights and they can also alter the image if they want. But if doing so then upsets someone, the photographer is expected to carry the blame. Nice!

Which is not a stone´s throw from the stock agency concept that feels happy with the idea of combining images from several originals and photographers and then promoting the final image as the agency´s own. Nice, as you say.

Rob C

this is a very common practice for so-called "contests"

All this bull is a good reason photographers should stop whoring themselves to places like that and only submit to legitimate sources for contests, and never sell their photography rights and all--never. It all happens because we allow it.

You are absolutely right, and the base of it all is pride, ego and the madness of the belief system that perpetuates the idea that seeing ones work in print is some sort of confirmation of excellence.

One glance at the mountain of crap gracing our press and airwaves should dispell that at once, but it never does.

People will always debase themselves, in public or in private, it matters little; some even take pride in the humiliation (should they see it) which is borne out by the huge popularity of the current series of reality television ´offerings´.

Rob C

Most Pros will see these things for the con they are and the organisers don't care as they simply get lots of amateurs who won't realise they are being ripped off.

And how about National Geographic magazine: they run numerous contest throughout the year, themselves or in partnership with others (e.g. Best Buy), which attract hundreds of thousands of entries, and each of them has the same rule: by simply submitting your entry, you are granting them all usage rights forever!

Yes, and it's robbery. There should be legislation that prevents this sort of thing. It's the same type of crap Microsoft does that makes it impossible for photographers to make a living: Hire 20, 000 photographers for one year and tell them to shoot everything they can in that time. Pay them very well, and take all the rights from them. Then, sell their photographs as Microsoft's stock photography for 200 years with as many as 1 million photographs. You can buy the entire disk for 50 bucks. Who needs a photographer anymore.

I'll tell you what needs to happen, which would knock big companies out of this robbery, and that's that NO photographer can give away rights, by law. Those who wish to buy them can use them with limitation and that's it. No more Microsoft clearing houses.

That's fine. When the REAL information gets out about "photographer" people will stop investing thousands into their equipment and giving their work away, simply because being a professional photographer is a pipe dream, but perpetuated by camera companies and others who profit from sheep thinking they "have the eye." LOL.

Never ever, ever, ever license all rights unless someone is willing to write a very big check. That's how I feel about it.