Landscape Photography and Nature Photography by Jim M. Goldstein - JMG-Galleries - How The Rights To Your Photo Are Being HijackedThrough Photo Contests & Social Media: "One of the most underhanded tactics sweeping the online and publishing world is the hijacking of photo rights through inequitable terms buried in the fine print of legalese for contests and web sites. The perpetrators will no doubt surprise you, they include the likes of Facebook, National Geographic + PDN, Popular Photo, and more.
This issue is not a new one and has reared its ugly head in the past on other photo sharing sites, but now this tactic is becoming increasingly common with major players. Offending words such as perpetual, royalty-free license and irrevocable are being introduced to hijack the rights to photographs of well intended photographers looking to play the odds to have their work recognized in a contest or just to simply share with friends.
So what does this mean? It means companies, that used to pay for quality photography to fill the pages of their publications, are now taking advantage of well intentioned photographers to develop royalty-free photo libraries they now can tap to fill the pages of their publication or place in promotional advertisements."
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Jim Goldstein on Photo Contests and Sharing Sites
After being shocked at the Facebook TOS, I guess we are just getting numb to it. Sheesh....
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3 comments:
But is this new? Photo contests have been around for a long time so presumably so has the fine print. Does anybody have an old photo magazine or the like with the details of a photo contest in it? It would be interesting see how the details differ (if they have) over time.
I think it is somewhat new in that in past years there have been contests where the images could be used or were not returned to submitters. These days we see that the photographers have had their copyrights taken and no rights to the images at all. Facebooks TOS states that any image that is uploaded becomes their property and they have the rights to sell the image and control the copyright.
That is new, and definitely a situation that bears more scrutiny.
You are my new web filter - thanks for passing on the great articles & links.
I remember reading the Pop Photo terms... after a submission. Last time I make that mistake. I'm hoping my only solace is that it contained a fairly recognizable face and they don't have a model release. They still get the image, but hopefully lack of the model release limits what they can do.
Part of me wonders about the motive behind this. Did this started with lawyers trying to cover the butts of their clients by grabbing as many rights as possible so if the client does something with the image, they are covered, or if places like this are truly looking grab as many rights as possible for their own gain.
Either way, you're right. I think people are getting numb to it, or most non working photographers just want to say, "Hey look, my picture is on CNN!!!"
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