Facebook/Bing Photo Contest

Well a few weeks ago I submitted a few images to a photo contest that Bing is putting on through their facebook fan page... The winning photo gets featured on the bing homepage as the background for day in January... Anyway, yesterday I got an email letting me know that I was one of ten finalists selected, and that voting will be open until 12/20.

Well as of today I am winning the stupid thing, and by the comments the image has received I think I am leading by a pretty wide margin.

Here is info regarding what happends when you win...

"After the close of the final round, the photo that received the most votes will be declared the winner. The Bing photo contest will have only one winner. The winning photo will be featured on www.bing.com as the official homepage photo for 24 hours on January 6, provided that the photo is in compliance with the Contest Rules. Microsoft may choose to use any hot spots within the winning photo but is not obligated to do so. The winning photographer will be given credit for the photo."

And here is the legal stuff.

"All digital images must be original work. Participants retain ownership rights to their photos. You must have taken the photograph yourself, and submitted photos cannot violate the privacy or intellectual property rights of any person or entity. This shall include, but not be limited to, all third party copyrighted materials.
By submitting your photograph you grant Microsoft Corporation and its affiliates (collectively, "Microsoft") an unlimited, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, nonexclusive right and license to use, reproduce, publish, modify, perform and display the image and any hot spots on the www.bing.com webpage or any replacement or successor to such web page, any sub domains, any international versions of www.bing.com, and in any marketing or advertising of any kind related thereto, in any medium now known or later developed.
Microsoft will not pay you any compensation for your photograph or any use we may make of it. Microsoft is not obligated to use your photograph and we may not notify you if we do not use it. By submitting your photograph you agree and represent to Microsoft that you are the photographer and the sole copyright owner of the photograph."

So from what I gather, if I did win, I would get credit for the photo, and then they in turn could use it for whatever they want essentially. I've gotten some decent exposure from this (100+ views on my personal website yesterday) and would get credit if I did win... but I'm not so excited about what they could potentially do with it after the contest...

Here is a link to the image, which contains a link to the contest... you'd need a facebook account to go to the actual contest page btw...

http://www.flickr.com …justinkraemer/4​187720627/

You gave then that right by submitting they don't just get it if you win. Always read the small print first.

Yea, I know... I'm not sure if it matters or not, but I uploaded a pretty low res version of the file...

Yet another reason I don't enter my photos into contests like these.

I will respond to calls for entries at galleries, etc. but not this stuff.

OdiN1701 wrote in post #9210775
Yet another reason I don't enter my photos into contests like these.

I will respond to calls for entries at galleries, etc. but not this stuff.

x2 its all fun and games until you read the fine print

Simply Ravishing wrote in post #9210349
but I'm not so excited about what they could potentially do with it after the contest...

So lets all vote for the image that is currently in second place?

Hahaha... I am not all convinced that this is entirely a bad deal... I mean I would be getting a fair amount of exposure, just no direct compensation.

It says that you retain the copyright and grant them a nonexclusive right to use the photo. I think that's more than fair as compared to all of the other competitions I've seen. Personally, I don't think it's a bum deal either.

You get to say you were featured on Bing (make sure you take screenshots). I wish you good luck!

Oh and nice caputre btw!

OdiN1701 wrote in post #9210775
Yet another reason I don't enter my photos into contests like these.

I will respond to calls for entries at galleries, etc. but not this stuff.

bingo!

A lot of these contests are just ways for companies to get free photos. They can build their own image library and use them. Imagine how many thousands of suckers have submitted their photos to the competition and by doing so have given Microsoft permission to use them for a whole lot of purposes relating to bing.

Do you get a line of credit? Will the image, upon being clicked, lead to your website? Thats what I would like.

Unless it was one of my photos that was easily recognized...then what use would it be? anyone can photoshop that on the bing website and call it a tearsheet..that would be my concern. And is it even a qualifiable tearsheet?

By submitting your photograph you grant Microsoft Corporation and its affiliates (collectively, "Microsoft") an unlimited, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, nonexclusive right and license to use, reproduce, publish, modify, perform and display the image and any hot spots on the www.bing.com webpage or any replacement or successor to such web page, any sub domains, any international versions of www.bing.com, and in any marketing or advertising of any kind related thereto, in any medium now known or later developed.

Let's see... Microsoft owns Corbis, don't they?

amfoto1 wrote in post #9211707
Let's see... Microsoft owns Corbis, don't they?

I'm no lawyer but given the language you quoted, it seems to me anything Microsoft does with the image has to be related to the bing website and there is no right conferred to use it outside of that.

Karl Johnston wrote in post #9211657
Do you get a line of credit? Will the image, upon being clicked, lead to your website? Thats what I would like.

Just based on all the other bing images... clicking on the image shows there are several hotspots with tidbits of facts and then a link that leads to more info on that tidbit. There is a tiny copyright symbol next to the forward and back buttons near the bottom right of the image shows the line credit. Problem is... very few people are going to click on that copyright symbol to see who made that image.

JWright wrote in post #9212093
I'm no lawyer but given the language you quoted, it seems to me anything Microsoft does with the image has to be related to the bing website and there is no right conferred to use it outside of that.

You missed the part at the beginning that said:

"you grant Microsoft Corporation and its affiliates (collectively, "Microsoft")"