Why I wont be entering the Asian Diver photo contest

I was at a dive show in Sydney, Australia yesterday and was talking to the rep for Asian Diver there and discussing their photo contest.

To my disgust, the following is a condition for entering their contest:

"Asian Diver reserves the right to publish any submitted photo - whether a prize winner or not - in future issues, promotional materials and in exhibition spaces. For each use of the photo the name of the author will be mentioned but there will be no payment for use of copyright"

Web reference - http://www.asiandiver.com/events/photo_com...ition/form1.pdf

In my mind this is an attempt to create a library of images that the magazine can use for free without having to pay anything to the photographer. If this is not true, then I question why this condition is included in the contest conditions at all - it would be appropriate that prize winners images can be used (as they would have been 'paid' in prizes) - but not ANY entered image.

M

That's a new twist on the old "entries will not be returned" condition isn't it.

This is not the only place/competition I have seen with the same or similar conditions of entry, but this is amongst the most egregious... As I almost never enter competitions it's not that big an issue for me, but I agree with Paul, I certainly would not be entering the Asian Diver contest.

I agree! It is normal for competitions to reserve the rights to re-publish award winning images free of charge, but only in association with promoting the competition itself.

One way round the problem would be to only enter Caribbean fish pictures. Asian Diver don't do stories on the Caribbean, so would never have the chance to use your picture!

Alex

Actually, Asian Diver will do an editorial story on any location anywhere in the world as long as someone is willing to "pay" for the story by buying a big enough ad. They've been broadening their scope with more out-of-Asia stories this past year in an effort to broaden their advertising base, so I don't think submitting images from the Caribbean is really safe either.

The mystery about this contest scheme is that Asian Diver pays almost nothing for photographs as it is, so they aren't going to save much money using contest entries for free. Maybe their photo well is finally running dry. (It's starting to look like it.)

I know one of the editors at AD, actually a very nice guy who I think is doing the best he can, but they have to work within quite rigid commercial guidelines.

I did a piece for them some years ago, and I've let them use a few pictures in the past. Another (commissioned) piece I did for them a couple of years ago, which was a (negative) review of a widely advertised dive computer, was killed by the publisher out of fear that it might offend the manufacturer, a major advertiser. (That fear might have been well-grounded - AD isn't the only dive magazine that has spiked a negative about that particular piece of gear.)

Anyway, Marriard's point is absolutely right - nobody should ever enter a photo contest on these terms.

- Frogfish

Being an amateur u/w photographer who just shoots for fun, I am also furious at such an unfair condition. In fact, I was furious enough to shoot an email to AD.

One of the editors has replied apologetically that it is a mistake on their part. Only winning shots will be used for promotion. Quote :only winning photos will be used in promotional materials for the photo competition only; we will not be using the photos in future stories, for advertisements or as part of a photo archive .

Let's wait and see if they change that condition in their online PDF file.

regards

Eric

Let's wait and see if they change that condition in their online PDF file.

Well since I was the first to point the finger, let me be the first to say that they have completely changed this condition in their photo contest. In fact it now specifically indicates that it is only winning photos, and only for promotion of future competitons (in various forms).

New web reference:

http://www.asiandiver.com/events/photo_com...tition_form.pdf

Much better.

Now I need to decide what to enter...

M

Went to Indo last month and bought two copies of the magazine, somebody mentioned that AD doesn't pay much for photographs and it shows, the pics in both magazines were of very poor standard, including the front page shots...