photo compition free to enter!!

[Cellarman]

I have just received this reply:

"I understand that the editor of Wildlife Extra has responded to your email. We are also sorry that you feel this way and having spoken to Powell Ettinger this morning we have made the decision to amend the Terms & Conditions slightly. I hope this will reinstate your faith in both Páramo and Wildlife Extra. "

(I haven't yet had a response from the editor)

They have changed the rule to this:

"By submitting your images, you agree that Wildlife Extra and Paramo Ltd may use them in the future, free of charge unless you specifically request otherwise. By submitting your images you agree that any prize winning images may be used free of charge at any time by Wildlife Extra or Paramo."

I'm still not happy and have suggested that while they should use winning pics free in connection with the competition, all other uses should be paid for with an agreed fee.

We will see what happens

[Keith Talbot]

very interesting cellarman,

i didnt realise id open such a can of worms when posting the link

good to see a response from them,at least they seem to understand where your coming from,

i admit i was having second thoughts after everyones comments on here hopefully they might change things further.

[eeyore]

that kind of proviso is quite standard in photo competitions including the biggies like wildlife photographer of the year.

my feeling is that it isnt worth getting worked up about - yes they are getting non exclusive rights to the image for no payment for you , but on the other hand the sponsor are presumably putting up the prize fund and paying the costs of promoting the competition.

If all photographers got het up about this condition then there would be far fewer sponsors and thus fewer competititions.

Ironically it tends to be amateurs who get excited about this kind of condition as a pro would look at it as being a write off and /or an expense for advertising their abilities/ cost of doing buisness.

the bottom line is so long as they only want non exclusive use of the images submitted then there is no need to flap.

If you dont like it then dont enter, but accusing them of being unethical and underhand is just plain silly - it would be unethical if they used the pictures without telling you , but what they are doing here is just standard practice.

( It is also worth noting that paramo have a very close working relationship with pro wildlife photographer Andy Rouse, it is far more likely therefore that if they wanted pics for a big global advertisement or brand that they would use some of his work rather than picking up work of an unknown amateur through a competition like this)

[Ed Tyler]

I posted about this on another photography forum that I frequent quite a lot and got the same response, "standard practise".

The fact that they have now changed the terms and conditions is actually a big plus in my eyes. At least they bothered to listen !!!!!

Ed

[wildflower]

Looks like it may be worth entering even if its just for the fun to enter and not take it to heart if one didnt win..Shall have to see if i can take a decent photograph.