Granting rights to Architectural Competition Holders

[Andrew Doran]

When Architects and Designers enter design contests and submit your photos, the often unwittingly agree to giving up usage rights the contest holders.

This can be a tricky situation to balance to ensure that everyone's rights are respected, and client relationships aren't strained.

I recently dealt with a situation where an architect submitted images to a competition with a national wood council, who subsequently claimed the images as their own, to advertise with as they please. I saw my photos in a magazine with a wood council credit, completely by chance.

After a few discussions with them, they agreed that the line of text on their entry form that says "all photos submitted become the property of blah, blah, blah..." gives them no legal grounds to claim any rights on my copyrighted images, and agreed to stop using them.

Although I didn't really lay any blame on the magazine, they quickly offered to pay me for the usage, and apologized for not confirming the source of the photos, which I accepted. Very professional on their part.

This whole ordeal caused a kerfuffal with my architect client, because, they want their building to be seen, and they don't want to fall into bad graces with the contest holders. Think "No point in giving a prize to ABC Architects, their photographer won't let us use the photos". Result, my architect clients lose the contest, and eventually I lose the client.

What to do??

I have considered giving my architect and designer clients a letter outlining contest image use to submit with their application. Has anyone thought of this, or done anything similar?

-A

[ccarothers]

(Reposted from the T&C thread) I haven't done it, but I think a letter outlining contest use guidelines is an excellent idea. I bet most clients don't even read the T&C on the contest before submitting and don't know about a rights grab. I hope they would consider our rights and not agree to language that gives the contest sponsor rights to use images for free that they had to pay for. It's like educating clients regarding 3rd party usage (subcontractors, etc.) and comes down to an issue of fairness.

Any ASMP members know if that org has a position on this?

[Andrew Doran]

I came up with this letter to Contest Holders to distribute to my clients that submit portfolio images to architectural competitions.

I think it is important to stress to clients that these usage rights protect their interests as a photography buyer. My clients pay for photography in order to promote their businesses. If the images they pay to use, get used by contest holders without giving my clients credit for the work the did on the property then my client is getting no value from the use. It is not right that my client should pay for the photos, and someone else should use them for promotion. Of course, I am protecting my own interests as well, but my client and I should be on the same team as far as third party use is concerned.

I have tried to word the letter in a way that shows to be offering use, instead of restricting use to contest holders. I wanted to ensure the my client benefits form submitting to, and winning awards by having the photos published with stories that announce the achievements of my clients, so they feel they are getting value for their photography fees. At the same time, I want to ensure that my name is associated with the photos, and that they do not get used in an inappropriate manner.

I have created a letter that my clients can pass on, so they can pass the buck for image rights back to me. I'm happy to have the discussion with the contest holders if they have any questions.

Please take a look, please use the letter or something similar if you think it will help you and your clients protect the images. And, please let me know what you think, or if you have ideas or suggestions to make it better.

If there are any photo buyers, or contest holders reading, I would love to hear from you too.

This type of documentation is the sort of thing we should be sharing here to try to continue to educate the organizations we deal with about copyright, and usage. That always seems to be the biggest challenge in this industry for me.

-Andrew

[Gary Silverstein]

Thanks, Andrew, for putting up such a great letter. You have definitely given the right twist to a very knotty problem. It sounds like it could be a win-win-win proposition for all concerned.

Bravo!

Gary Silverstein
We Shoot
Architectural Photography and Product Photography Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia Photographers, We Shoot

[ccarothers]

Nice job Andrew! Thanks for sharing your hard work with us.

Best,

Cameron