I get mail from people who like my work, urging me to enter a contest they've come across. Entering contests is something I do if the prizes or prestige seem worth it, many of them have fees, but more and more what we are seeing these days are contests that are "rights grabs". Entrants won't know this unless they read the fine print in the rules.

One that seemed harmless is Costco's current contest. The prize money is significant, at $1K for first place. I had a very commercial/wide appeal image in mind, never entered in a contest but it's been around long enough to get stolen as per the image. Anyway, then I read the contest rules:

"10. Entrant confirms and promises that entry is original and does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party. 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.. Entrant agrees to sign any further documentation required by Costco to give effect to this clause."

The first sentence, you betcha. The second--hand over my intellectual property rights to that image (forever) whether or not it wins anything? Or even if it wins the prize, give up all rights to further market that image? In stock photography, the key is to sell and resell an image, almost like renting a car although there is no maintenance--buyers pay for the use they need: local, national, print, web, big, small, commercial, personal and priced on the spectrum of rarity through commonplace. It's more akin to songwriting royalties than rental cars, though that's a discussion for another time, or maybe never.

The Bill of Rights for Photography Contests was developed to help contest organizers offer photographer-friendly terms and conditions. Ones who have complied are promoted and ones who still have rights-grabbing terms are outed to a broad audience. The Costco contest is already listed on their "Rights Off" web page.

Another frequent tactic these days is for web or print media to offer contests where "all entries become property of XYZ corporation and may be used in any or all ways without further compensation to the photographer", thereby developing a library of stock images at no expense. The shooter will never be notified how and when their images is used, so they won't even get the jollies of being published unless they won a prize or honorable mention in the original contest. This rights-grab is particularly rampant in the horse and pet industry.

There are many internet horse mags with top clinician contributors, full paid advertising that want the clinician to supply photos. Clinicians don't have much money to buy photography either. But I digress. Before you enter any contests, hop over to pro-imaging.org and see if they're on the Rights Off list, or read the contest rules carefully yourself.