Another set of contest terms, followed by some commentary:
[blockquote]By submitting an entry, entrant grants Sponsor and its designees an irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide perpetual license to use the entry and his/her name, city and state of residence for credit purposes in Sponsor’s online galleries, without further compensation, notification or permission, unless prohibited by law. In addition, each winner grants to the Sponsor and its designees an irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide perpetual license to use and distribute the entry [(as submitted, or as cropped by Sponsor)], and his/her name, city and state of residence for credit purposes, in any and all media now or hereafter known, including without limitation in Outdoor Photographer magazine, for purposes of promotion of this Contest and other Sponsor contests and/or for purposes of advertising and promoting Sponsor and, except as otherwise stated herein, without further compensation, notification or permission, unless prohibited by law.[/blockquote]
OK, better in some ways, but still a problem or two.
The positives:
- The license grants the sponsor (and a few others) rights to use the photographs in ways connected to the contest itself.
- It does not appear that the terms grant the sponsor, et all a right to use photographs for unlimited purposes.
The "not sure how good/bad this is" stuff:
- While it doesn't appear that photographs can be used for an unlimited range of purposes, there is a rather large range of permitted uses - especially in light of the "negative" I'll mention below. These include promoting this contest (fine), other contests (hmmm, but perhaps), and advertising and promoting the sponsor (seems a bit broad to me).
The negative - or maybe not?:
- One again, certain terms do not just apply to contest winners - they apply to ALL ENTRANTS. "By submitting an entry, entrant grants Sponsor and its designees..." However, I will note in defense of the sponsors that only the first clause of the agreement applies to ENTRANTS - " irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide perpetual license to use the entry and his/her name, city and state of residence for credit purposes in Sponsor’s online galleries, without further compensation, notification or permission, unless prohibited by law." And then, " In addition, each winner grants..."
Verdict? These terms are much improved in comparison to some of the very onerous terms that grab an unlimited license from all entrants for any use by the sponsor and affiliates for all eternity. Here, the ENTRANTS grant the sponsor a license for a type of use that I would regard as reasonable and necessary. Other terms apply only to winners, who grant the sponsors and affiliates considerable additional rights - though one could certainly make a case that the winners have been compensated by winning the contest.
The only concerning language that I see in my quick once over comes at the end: "and/or for purposes of advertising and promoting Sponsor..." This would clearly permit the sponsor to, say, run a public advertising campaign based on a photograph from any of the contest winners, and the actual value of a photograph used in such a way could easily exceed the value of contest prizes. I'd be more comfortable here with language that limited the use to promoting future editions of THIS CONTEST, and which eliminated the broad scope of that last section.
What do you think?
Dan