| Photography Forum: Philosophy Of Photography Forum: |
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Q. Is PhoTournament legit or spam
Asked by Titia Geertman
(K=5572) on 2/11/2004
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Got a mail this evening from PhoTournament .com. A lot of bla bla bla, but looked nice enough to try. However, when I read their membership agreement, I got a bit suspiceous, because of the following:
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Rule 5 says:
The Member retains the copyright to all photographs submitted to PhoTournament.com
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Rule 6 says:
The Member grants PhoTournament.com a nonexclusive right, on a worldwide basis, to publish, use, adapt, edit, store, display, copy and/or modify such photograph in any way, in any and all media (including electronic media and on the Web Site), without limitation, and without consideration to the Member.
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Isn't that a bit contradictious? Retaining the copyright of your photo and at the same time allowing them to do anything they want to do with your photo?
Looks to me as a cheap way to obtain beautiful photo's for their own use for free.
Or am I wrong. Anyway, I didn't sign up as a member, because nobody's messing around with my photo's but myself. Right?
Anybody familiar with this site?
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Mark Beltran
(K=32612) - Comment Date 2/11/2004
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I agree when you said "looks to me as a cheap way to obtain beautiful photos for their own use for free."
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Robert Frank Green
(K=1039) - Comment Date 2/11/2004
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Titia, I would stay clear of sites like this. The are brand new and don't even have examples of the work they want. Also, in the first terms of agreement, they grant themselves the abilities to change the rules anytime they want. Imagine, in say a year or so, the decide that any image with the color black on their website is now owned by them? You get the idea. I think you're right in assuming they are fishing for photo rights. Plus, unless I missed it they have no prizes etc. They also reserve the right to cut you out any time they want and there is nothing about them returning any posted images when you are no longer associated with the web site. Good luck! Bob
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Jeroen Wenting
(K=25317) - Comment Date 2/12/2004
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Most if not all such sites are just fishing for people to send them photos which they can then sell without owing you anything.
The "competition" is just a way to get people to send them things, the bait to make it seem like not to be the scam it is.
The prizes either don't exist or are worthless. Usually you will even have to pay THEM to send you whatever prize you've won...
It's like the Lekturama prizedraws from the 1980s in the Netherlands.
Winners are non-existent persons, their stories written by company employees and photos of the "award ceremonies" featuring actors or employees acting like the "winners".
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Titia Geertman
(K=5572) - Comment Date 2/12/2004
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Thanks for your answers. I knew there was something wrong when I read their rules.
Titia
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Titia Geertman
(K=5572) - Comment Date 2/12/2004
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Just found out he's a member of Usefilm, no info, no photo's though.
Titia
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Richard Thornton
(K=26442) - Comment Date 2/14/2004
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I think you're all being a little hasty in your judgement. There is no explicit wording in the agreement that gives them the right to sell your image. Most electronic stock agencies and other with some commercial end use in mind ask for LARGE files, at least 8 x 10 at 300 dpi.
How are you going to merchandise something 640 pixels wide? A web page, maybe? That application wouldn't pay much anyway.
This site strikes me as just being a start up still feeling its way and developing.
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Titia Geertman
(K=5572) - Comment Date 2/14/2004
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Maybe you're right, but I'm still feeling uncomfortable with rule 6. He mentioned a (maybe) book in his converstation.
Oh well, I've learned the bad way to be suspicious about mails out of the blue and giving nonexclusive copyrights away in my poetry writing.
In this case, being a member of Usefilm, I think he should've mentioned that to me at any point in the conversation we had about this topic. If I'd known from the start, I probably wouldn't have had the urge to put this question here in this forum.
Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. I've no intention to go on and on in this thread.
Thanks for all your opinions and thoughts.
Titia
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