The City of Toronto is desperate for free pictures. The city is running yet another photo-rights grab disguised as a photo contest.
The city is asking people to send in winter pictures taken in city parks, ravines and recreation centres. The latter case, taking pictures inside recreation centres, violates the city’s own code of conduct for recreation centres.
In public parks, the city’s parks people are known for harassing photographers who have “big cameras” but no photo permit. Toronto even says that news photographers need prior city permission before shooting in a public park. Yet now, Toronto has a contest asking people to do what the city tries to ban.
Just like all previous Toronto photo contests, the rules say that Toronto gets:
…a royalty-free, world-wide, perpetual, non-exclusive license to the City, and anyone it authorizes, to display, distribute, modify, crop reproduce, and create derivative works, of the entrants in any media now existing or subsequently developed including the Internet, for any City purpose including, but not limited to, advertising and promotion. Such license is provided without any fee or other form of compensation, or any requirement for additional approvals.
Photographers must waive all moral rights and promise to defend the city in any lawsuit with regard to the pictures. Do you need a lawyer to review your photos before entering?
The above applies to *all* pictures entered, not just the winners.
Nikon is donating a few prizes but it should be ashamed of itself for being involved with this type of rights-grab. Nikon should be advocating for all photographers both pro and amateur.
The “professional” photographers acting as judges should also be ashamed. If their pictures were at stake, I bet they’d never agree to a rights grab like this.
Of course, the city of Toronto should be ashamed of itself for pulling a stunt like this (again) but it has little regard for photographers.
Earlier today, Toronto launched its music strategy on how it might support and help the city’s musicians and music industry. Key to its strategy is to “support an environment friendly to music creators” which includes, among many other things, making sure that there is “fair compensation for performers.”
Where is the environment friendly to photo creators? Where is the fair compensation for photographers?
The city used to hire photographers to shoot pictures for its various brochures, magazines and marketing. Now it steals pictures from unsuspecting amateurs.
