Competitions and Grabbing Image Rights

Covey

Interesting site re. the above.

http://www.pro-imaging.org/content/view/203/32/

Could a mod please change the title to:

Competitions and Grabbing Image Rights (sorry I'm tired here ! )

Thirdfox

Interesting articles - but what if people are fine with giving away their rights to potential profits? Should they not be free to do so? I think once properly informed, people can make a decision themselves whether to enter these kind of competitions or not.

I'm not convinced by the argument that this kind of thing is an attack on professional photographers - if an amateur can take photos that are just as good as the professionals then either the amateur may want to go pro or the professional photographer needs to change career. Some people don't expect money for their work - others do... it's their choice if they want to agree to the terms or not.

sheesh

I think they are right to put up a list of competitions the will try to take away your rights to a photo but since most competitions do that most of us know. the whole 'Stealing your rights Shocka!' type vibe is annoying.

City-Exile

By default, I'll assume that I'm relenquishing he rights to an image, when I enter a competition with a significant prize.

Paulw

Even with some competitions with minimal prizes, or even photos sent to news sites (BBC, CNN, MSNBC, etc) would be similar in that you're giving away all your rights.

It's great to see it being publicised more about photographers rights.

Eye2Eye

Thirdfox wrote: »

if an amateur can take photos that are just as good as the professionals then either the amateur may want to go pro or the professional photographer needs to change career.

I'm not so sure I agree with this. I don't thing that taking great photographs is all there is to being a successful professional photographer. If that was the case a lot of people here could go out and shoot all day to their hearts content - and make a good living from it.
I think the ability to sell yourself and your work is just as important. You also will need to know what your chosen market/customers wants - and keep supplying that (whether you like it or not), be it landscapes, sports or weddings. I could keep guessing at the other skills needed....

I can't see how these competitons are a problem for proper professionals. If these competitions clearly state their T&C upfront, people (be they amatures or professionals) can choose to partake or not.

PS. I'm an amature and plan to stay that way! Even if I was good enough, I enjoy it too much to make it a job

Thirdfox

Eye2Eye wrote: »

I'm not so sure I agree with this. I don't thing that taking great photographs is all there is to being a successful professional photographer. If that was the case a lot of people here could go out and shoot all day to their hearts content - and make a good living from it.
I think the ability to sell yourself and your work is just as important. You also will need to know what your chosen market/customers wants - and keep supplying that (whether you like it or not), be it landscapes, sports or weddings. I could keep guessing at the other skills needed....

Hence the reason I said they should consider going pro - maybe they don't feel like the time they'd need to put in would be worth what they get out of it or for whatever reason they decide that even though they consistently get great photos they do not want to be a working photographer.

But certainly I heard that you can make some pocket money from shooting for the micro-stock libraries. All that requires is that you do something different and do it well...