BMW Photo Contest - Beware!

[John Ferris]

If you enter a BMW contest a send the pictures to Germany I think German law would cover it.
For as long as I remember any contest that you enter pictures in gets the copyright.
Whats new about any of that ?

[TheEnglishman]

Originally Posted by John Ferris

...
For as long as I remember any contest that you enter pictures in gets the copyright.

Not true in my experience. I've always retained the copyright - but its very usual for the people I submit to to say they (and their partners/subsidiaries
) have unlimited rights to use the image(s) as and when they see fit.

The BBC News website is one such :- BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | Your news, your pictures

[Bjorn]

Not true in my experience either. Obviously, photo contests need to have permission to at least use the winning pictures to promote the contest itself once it's over: to announce the winners, and maybe to advertise for next year's contest.

Some photo contests (I think it was Sigma and a few others at the time), say that they might use any of the pictures entered for advertising their products: for example a picture taken with a Sigma lens for the Sigma contest might appear in the follwing Sigma lens brochure, or Sigma adverts in the photo magazines. (Which is OK in my opinion).

I think it was O2 who did a "Travel Photography" contest a few years back – "any picture entered could be used for anything. Anywhere." More or less...
The first price was a Nikon point-and-shoot camera (hey - wow!!! Don't be too generous! What about a D2x?)
At the time, EPUK (Editorial Photographers UK) campaigned against that contest & as a result (though hesitantly) Nikon said they'd pull out of the contest until O2 changed the conditions.

I know that no-one is forced to enter a contest, and that we live in a free world.
But in my opinion, what BMW is doing is not OK. If they're cheeky enough to "ask" for unlimited usage rights of the pictured entered, at least they should emphasize that part of the contract a little more. Or give people the option: "You're not a winner, but BMW likes your picture – would you like to sell it to us?"

[Samy]

Copyright of a photo is belongs to the person who shot it unless there is a special agreement between.

If you sign an agreement which tells you've given the copyrights to related company, yeah nothing to do then.

A question: Hundreds of overlander riders take picture around the globe at extreme conditions, day and night, hot and cold, some at very distant and difficult to reach places. How much BMW has to spend to have 100 very good different pictures around the globe with all copyrights are belong to BMW? Can you guess? 300.000 euros? 500.000? And they sell their riding machines to this riders though