I often get requests from people about either using MY pictures to enter their children into contests, or family members tell ME to enter MY kid into photo contests. I admit, Lilly is pretty stinkin cute… but have you ever thought about and read the TERMS of a photo contest? I ask you to PLEASE read ALL TERMS and CONDITIONS of every single place you submit your pictures to…including unwatermarked pictures on facebook, myspace, your personal blog etc.
I heard on the radio that a local radio station was doing a cute baby photo contest and that there’s tons of cash prizes and your child could be up on a billboard around town. How cool would that be? Everyone thinks “my kid is cute enough!! I’m going to enter!” Hold up!!
I heard the ad and even said to myself… “Lilly is super cute… I think I will enter”…
So I go to their website and read “terms and conditions” before uploading ANYTHING (please do the same thing!)… sure enough it’s the SAME terms and conditions as most contests you see around (like from costco, newspapers, etc)…
The following was taken directly from their site under rules:
“BY ENTERING THE CONTEST, YOU ARE VERIFYING THAT (1) YOU ARE THE PARENT AND/OR LEGAL GUARDIAN OF THE BABY IN THE SUBMITTED PHOTO, AND (2) THE OWNER AND PRODUCER OF THE SUBMITTED MATERIAL AND THAT NO THIRD PARTY OWNERSHIP RIGHTS EXIST TO THE PHOTOGRAPH SUBMITTED. BY ENTERING THE CONTEST, YOU ARE TRANSFERRING ALL OWNERSHIP RIGHTS OF YOUR SUBMITTED PHOTOGRAGH TO THE COMPANY, AS DEFINED ABOVE. YOUR SUBMITTED PHOTOGRAPHWILL NOT BE RETURNED AND YOU WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO USE THE SUBMISSION FOR ANY COMMERCIAL USE AFTER IT HAS BEEN SUBMITTED.”
It’s pretty standard verbage– nothing out of the ordinary… but do you understand it?
First off, most photographers (including me) own the rights to their photographs. A lot of newbie photographers hand over the cd of images and say you have the right to print them. Usually this comes from a lack of education in copyright and a poor business understanding… we transfer the right to print for personal use only. We still retain the copyright for our images. If you are a new photographer and don’t provide a release for personal usage for your images when (if) you give people a cd of images- you should really ask yourself why you would want to GIVE your work away to an advertising company (or a random individual) who can EASILY take those images and use for their ads. For free. With no compensation. I have heard of people seeing their images on billboards or in ads in magazines–they had no release signed so they were out of luck in doing anything.
But this doesn’t just mean professional work. It also means your little snapshot images you take of your kidlet while they are being all cute at home. Wouldn’t it suck to be flipping through a magazine and see your image of your kid you had entered into a contest a few years prior for a different company? Be careful which images you submit and most importantly– do not submit any professional photographers work without their written consent. I personally do not allow any of my images (personal or business) to go into contests unless those terms are different.
Another thing to understand– you are transferring ALL ownership and rights to the company…. whoa! If you didn’t even take the picture (your photographer did)- they own those images. So you just went and submitted little one’s picture your photographer put on a cd for you (or you illegally snatched from their facebook/website or you scanned in a hard copy) you just commited a huge legal no-no. It’s not your property to transfer the rights to so you can’t even enter it into the contest! Does that make sense?
Trust me, I am not against contests, or this specific station (I like them actually)…. I am just wanting people to understand what happens when you upload your images (whether it’s your personal ones or the ones from your professional photographer) to these contests… the images are NO LONGER YOURS (or your photographers for that matter) and you can make your photographer very upset!
This is what I have in my releases as to copyright release for personal use only and why. I have been seeing a lot of people entering these contests on facebook and they are uploading pictures from other photographers (professional or not… its still not your work) and I just want people to understand the terms before hitting “upload” to their image.
Bottom line– learn to read all the terms and conditions before entering any contest! 
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