I?m looking for OM List members? opinions to serve as a sanity check for
mine.
A very large corporation (100,000+ employees) is conducting its third
annual photo contest. The stated objective is to obtain images for the
Corporate intranet image data base. Photographs must have been made on
employees? time and off company property. The images in this database
are available for free use within the Corporation, and on request,
outside the Corporation. Credit for the photographer on usage is
requested but not required (and, in fact, is seldom given). The
corporation chooses the images added to the database from ALL images
submitted, not just winners or finalists. There are only three winners
in the contest. Those three winners each receive C*n*n cameras with
consumer grade zoom lenses. Ten finalists will be published and
credited in a spread in the monthly Corporate newsletter, but absolutely
no compensation is given to other submitters. Submissions are not
returned and the Corporation claims use of all submissions for ?an
unlimited time.? They do not, however, claim exclusive rights.
As I see this, the Corporation is conducting this contest to obtain
uncompensated use of employees? personal work, at very modest overall
expense. Heck of a deal for them. Certainly, some employees accept this
in return for the chance at a camera or at publication. I believe most
do not realize that their work has value for which they will receive no
consideration in return. Although the Corporation does state the rules
up front, that doesn?t make it right, IMO. Such photo contests are
common and I have always felt that photo contests conducted this way are
scams. Honest contest promoters claim rights only to images that they
pay for, either with a prize or other tangible compensation, also IMO.
What do you think?
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|