And an opportunity missed!
As one of our business units provides Photo Competition Platforms and Services for Corporate Customers I was very interested to discover Tourism Australia’s new campaign, which is entitled There’s Nothing like Australia.
This taxpayer funded campaign that everyone in the country (except those living under a rock) will hear about in the coming months is truly a great idea – why wouldn’t you get the people and friends of Australia to share their great imagery with the rest of the world as evidence of the amazing people, cultures and landscapes our great country has to offer. I was legitimately excited about the prospects of the event as not only would it showcase great Australian imagery, but it would also support our business endeavours AND promote enthusiast photographers – which is after all Photo Art Gallery’s reason for being.
So off I went to “There’s Nothing like Australia” to check out the platform and the photos where there are already over 3000 entries (and growing by the day) only to be confronted with a somewhat disappointing interface that really doesn’t respect the entrants’ images. Apart from the fact the images are very poorly cropped so you can’t see the whole photograph, the interface and ability to move from one group of images to the next or see them in high resolution is impossible – which is disappointing for an expose of Australian photography.
Now with a $25,000 trip up for grabs and a swag of other prizes, the event in itself is BIG insofar as photo competitions in Australia go... but I was a little surprised that there wasn’t a higher level of quality photography on display. After all... we see hundreds of amazing images of Australia at the Gallery and there are so many awesome photographers around... where were they all? I decided it was time I did some reading.
Now controversy surrounding the Terms and Conditions of Photo Competitions is not a new thing but surely a body as robust as The Australian Tourism Commission – effectively the Australian Government –wouldn’t make the same mistakes as others before them would they? They wouldn’t put undue and onerous conditions on the use of imagery whilst trying to get a whole swag full of images of Australia to use and exploit at the expense (and ease) of recognising and rewarding the contributors, would they?
Trundling through the T&C’s I came across the answer which, to my great disappointment, was not what I wanted to see...
Clause 11) By entering the Promotion, Eligible Entrants absolutely and unconditionally assign (and agree to use their best endeavors to procure any relevant third parties to absolutely and unconditionally assign) to the Promoter all right, title and interest in all intellectual property rights in their entry, including ownership of intellectual property rights in any photograph that forms part of an entry.
Clause 12) By entering the Promotion, Eligible Entrants acknowledge that their entry may be used by the Promoter, the Promoter's related entities, agencies engaged by the Promoter, or any other third party nominated by the Promoter, for the Promoter's current and future promotional and marketing purposes without further reference or compensation to them. Eligible Entrants unconditionally and irrevocably:
(a) consent to any act or omission that would otherwise infringe any of their moral rights in their entry (as defined in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)) and present and future rights of a similar nature conferred by statute anywhere in the world whether occurring before or after this consent is given (Moral Rights); and
(b) waive all Moral Rights in their entry that arise outside Australia.
And then on to
Clause 13 d) the Promoter intends to use Eligible Entries in its marketing campaigns, however the Promoter is under no obligation to do so;
And finally (e) the Promoter has the right to use an Eligible Entry in any media or in any way it sees fit....
And so it was....The Nothing Like Australia Campaign seeks to use and abuse photographers’ ownership of and attribution rights for their imagery AND any form of compensation or acnowledgement! Unless I am missing something (and please tell me if I am) this competition actually imposes some of the most onerous terms and conditions I have seen for some time.
Now don’t get me wrong, we aren’t against corporates using imagery for promotional purposes for such events but we do believe they should respect the artists' copyright, attempt to acknowledge them at all times and certainly pay them some form of remuneration should the images be used in advertising and promotional campaigns. We have conducted competitions such as The Essence of Australia competition where awesome imagery of Australia have been garnered and used for such purposes but with a far more positive outcome for the photographers concerned... it’s not hard!
We think this event is a great idea, but what a shame they had to go and make it so Un-Australian as to put these terms and conditions in place. We couldn’t possibly recommend that you enter on this basis and would love to see Tourism Australia take a more positive and "Australian" approach to the event by giving the contributors the rights and exposure that they rightly deserve.
C’mon Tourism Australia... its such a simple, appropriate and Australian thing to do (and the irony is that it will result in even more higher quality imagery than they could possibly imagine).
If you want to voice your concern go here: http://nothinglikeaustralia.com/help.htm! As enthusiast, pro and aspiring photographers we MUST stand up for our rights to own and hold the value of the imagery we create.
I removed my entry and sent them this message and would propose you do the same!
I am unhappy with the onerous terms and conditions imposed by your competition and would like to see Tourism Australia amend them to respect the rights of the entrants and their imagery.
Will Tourism Australia address my concerns?
Let’s make the There’s Nothing Like Australia Campaign more Australian!
Photos by: Paul Worsley, Glen Edwards, Andrew Coppin
