Posted by David Sewell on March 5, 2010 at 9:22 AM
We all know that competition rules are getting tougher, but the Mammal Society 'Mammals in the Spring'competition sets the bar even higher than previously (http://www.mammal.org.uk/images/forms/admindocs/terms%20and%20conditions.pdf). According to rule 5 photographers submitting entries must 'ensure that any entries they submit are taken with the permission of the subject'. Just how are we expected to get our subjects to give their permission?
And we thought WPOTY rules were tough!
I won't be entering, but that is more to do with rule 6, granting the Mammal Society a perpetual right to use all images submitted in any of their publications or websites. It is an organisation I both admire and belong to, but that is asking too much for (possibly)one tiny prize.
Easy to get permission from Voles and Mice - just get them to run over an inkpad and sign their paw-print on the model release
So many of these things are written by corporate lawyers or marketing agencies and they seem to all come from the same cookie-cutter/mold - I guess they think it's a great marketing ploy and that no-one reads the conditions
Well, rest assured the 'Corporate lawyers' won't be getting paid peanuts for that, or is it that they are just 'Fat cats' that are taking the cream? Things are just way getting out of hand!
I suspect the opposite. I'd say that to save on cost, the rules have been cobbled together by someone not legally competant - hence the errors. They've just chosen what they think looks right
Just write to them and point out that what they are running is not so much a competition as a 'rights grab' image harvesting scam, and that you take a dim view of such blatamt thievery and not only will you not be entering but will be telling all your hundreds of photographer friends not to enter either.
This one has already been posted on the Copyright Action blog. It's a shame that the Mammal Society are up to it too, if indeed they know what they are doing.
Discussion
6 repliesAnd we thought WPOTY rules were tough!
I won't be entering, but that is more to do with rule 6, granting the Mammal Society a perpetual right to use all images submitted in any of their publications or websites. It is an organisation I both admire and belong to, but that is asking too much for (possibly)one tiny prize.
David
So many of these things are written by corporate lawyers or marketing agencies and they seem to all come from the same cookie-cutter/mold - I guess they think it's a great marketing ploy and that no-one reads the conditions
I'm not a lawyer BTW....
Terry