Comments on: Costco International Photo Contest 2009

By: MEC

MEC — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:38:54 +0000

They are just another company wanting royalty-free images. Most people entering don’t even understand what they are giving up.

I was looking for a photo contest that my 13 nephew could enter and found one that is legit and great for him UNTIL I read the rules.

International Photography contest for Kids sponsored by National Geographic

Check out their ridiculous give up your rights to your intellectual property contest! Remember they are taking the rights away from the KIDS and their PARENTS.

By entering the Contest, all entrants (and their respective parents and legal guardians) grant a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive license to Sponsor, its designees, licensees and affiliates (“Authorized Parties”), to reproduce, distribute, display and create derivative works of the entries (along with a name credit) in connection with the Contest and promotion of the Contest, in any media now or hereafter known, including, but not limited to: Display at a potential exhibition of winners; publication of a book featuring select entries in the Contest; publication in National Geographic Kids Magazine or online highlighting entries or winners of the Contest. Entrants consent to the Sponsor doing or omitting to do any act that would otherwise infringe the entrant’s “moral rights” in their entries. Display or publication of any entry on an Authorized Party’s website does not indicate the entrant will be selected as a winner. Authorized Parties will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such use.

All I can say is READ READ READ READ READ the rules and fine print. Do not enter these contest just because you may get a great prize. You may not realize what you are giving up.

Think of it this way. You create a popular computer program, then enter it in a contest, win or not, you have given all rights to your idea. Now another company comes in and says they are interested in your software and want to buy you out for huge money. Then you tell them you gave freely royalty-free non-exclusive irrevocable rights to the contest company. Now purchasing company says, Oh too bad, now your software is worth $100 instead of millions.

It is better to retain all rights and not give them away for a little notoriety or a prize.

Draw your line in the sand!

By: moscowserg

moscowserg — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:07:41 +0000

Доброго времени суток. ТС, Ваш пост весьма интересен. Я думаю в комментах писать свою мыслю не буду. Пишите в аську

By: Marcus

Marcus — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:50:54 +0000

It seems that maybe Costco is affected by the recent economical situation if the US, but to ask for thousands of free images from photographers is down right cheap.

By: Poteau

Poteau — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:25:35 +0000

Shame on you, what a lack of respect….

By: Robert Davis

Robert Davis — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:33:27 +0000

This is another attempt at undermining the professionals who know the true value of a great image.
Shame on you Costco! And Nikon, what were you thinking?

By: Richard Kenward

Richard Kenward — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:19:43 +0000

This has to be one f the most disgraceful examples of a rip off photo competition ever foisted on the public and both Costco and sponsor Nikon should lower their heads in shame. They would do well to comply with the established rules for fair dealing in photo competitions as promoted by the international professional photographer’s organisation called Pro Imaging. There are a number of international well known companies listed who are behind this excellent scheme.

By: Will Rutledge

Will Rutledge — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:39:54 +0000

Time moves forward, and most of you will sign away your rights for nothing. Few of you will have the chance to be professional photographers because the business of photography is being systematically destroyed. Have a nice day!

By: Graham

Graham — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:28:42 +0000

This is a totally irresponsible ripoff of a persons rights for minuscule reward. Remove Items 9 and 10. And Nikon should be ashamed and withdraw their sponsorship.

By: Ian Joseph

Ian Joseph — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:48:27 +0000

I totally agree with the above poster. This is just a huge corporate rip off. Costco should be ashamed and Nikon should with draw their sponsorship.

By: John Wildgoose

John Wildgoose — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:04:31 +0000

Item 10 of the rules: …By participating, entrant agrees that ownership of the entry and all intellectual property rights in the entry is assigned to Costco, and will do all things necessary to give effect to that assignment.

So, let me get this straight. I send you a picture, and you take away my copyright (and moral/intellectual rights) and you get the right to use it (and all the other thousands of of entrant’d shots) where ever and when ever you want, for whatever purpose, and in return for this, in case I win, JUST in case I win you’ll give me a staggering $1,500.00 of Costco CREDIT (which after deducting your mark-up, is worth maybe $600.00.
Woopi-Doo, that’s a really great deal Costco.
Why don’t you just call it as it is:
“Hi this is Costco, we need a huge free image bank that we can tap into whenever we like, so send us your best pictures and we might throw three or four of you oh-so lucky so-and-so’s a relatively insignificant sum of credit to spend on something you probably wont want in one of our stores”