Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Great British Life do the right thing!

Screenshot from the Great British Life website:
IMPORTANT: This blog page is an update of Fair Trade Photographer's campaign to publicise the formerly unreasonable terms and conditions for photographers on Archant's Great British Life website. To view the original blog post there is a screenshot here.

UPDATE: 25 February 2010
As a result of the support of numerous photographers for this campaign, along with support from The British Institute of Professional Photography, Copyright Action and Pro Imaging's Bill of Rights, Archant Publishing and the Great British Life team have revised their terms and conditions to take account of our concerns.

Whereas the previous terms gave Archant a royalty-free license to use any images uploaded to their website for anything they wished, without payment, the new terms state:

3. Use of Images

By submitting a photograph You grant Great British Life worldwide license to reproduce, publicly display, distribute, publicly perform and create derivative works from Your submitted materials on the Great British Life websites.

If submitted as a competition entry, in all media, in connection with the administration, judging and promotion of the competition and future competitions. We shall have the right to grant sublicenses to the press and publicity agents in connection with the promotion of the competition. Full credit will be given to You in connection with image usage.

You will retain copyright and if we wish to use your photograph for any other purpose Archant will ask your permission and obtain your consent before doing so. Any commercial opportunities that arise following the publication of the submitted photograph will be notified to You, and You will be free to negotiate terms independently.


Fair Trade Photographer considers these terms reasonable, and are grateful for the Great British Life team's co-operation in listening to our concerns about photographer's rights to their images, and the right to receive fair payment for the commercial use of their images.

Archant said to us:

Archant are always happy to work with any groups or individuals, if they have concerns in relation to our websites or any of the terms and conditions.

Archant's magazines provide many opportunities for British photographers to gain recognition and reasonable payment for their creative endeavours and we look forward to working with them in future in promoting the Great British photos of our many talented contributing photographers.

The new terms and conditions can be viewed here.

-----------------------------------------------------

I now have to bring a new Rights Grab competition to your attention, this time courtesy of the UK government Department for Innovation, Business and Skills and News International. Please take a moment to read about their Living Science Competition Image Rights Grab and find out how you can help.

37 comments:

  1. link added in www.auswildlife.com

    cheers, Bruce

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for posting the results of your research ... copying and pasting has already begun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. thanks Bruce - found it!

    http://www.auswildlife.com/2010/02

    ReplyDelete
  4. link in www.robertclare.com blog

    ReplyDelete
  5. good job Robert - we are on a roll here!

    http://www.robertclare.com/blog/files/tag-great-british-life.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Blogged and tweeted!

    http://marksunderlandphotography.blogware.com/blog

    ReplyDelete
  7. I don't believe it!

    This page is already NUMBER 8 ON GOOGLE!

    http://www.google.com/search?q=%22great+british+life%22

    AWESOME!

    it is official: Google Likes Fair Trade Photographer!

    ReplyDelete
  8. thanks for the support Sheila!

    http://sheilasmartphotography.blogspot.com/2010/02/another-rights-grab.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well done Chris,
    added to my "About me" page....
    http://www.mike-watson.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  10. Chris

    I just tweeted this:

    http://twitter.com/InterfaceImages/status/8922818407

    ...David

    ReplyDelete
  11. thanks Mike, thanks David

    we are on websites, blogs, tweets... we now just need someone to go put up a banner infront of Archant's headquarters now... ARCHANT! STOP YOUR RIGHTS GRAB!

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great job Chris. Just added to the About page on ProPhotoNorthwest.com.

    ReplyDelete
  13. good comments on Image Rights Grabbing Alan, the more we can publicise what these companies are up to, the better we can educate photographers to avoid these traps.

    ReplyDelete
  14. link added to links page on www.bridenphotography.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. link added to my blog:
    http://shootimages.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  16. Check out your link on
    http://londoneye-09-10.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  17. Chris, Thanks. Uploaded to my "Links" page at http://www.focusimages.org.uk

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thanks Chris -just found out about this and tweeted it. With enough publicity, we can achieve results - look at what happened with the Environment Agency!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Posted it here to: http://simoncoatesphotography.co.uk/index.php?option=com_lyftenbloggie&view=lyftenbloggie&category=0&Itemid=54

    ReplyDelete
  20. See http://copyrightaction.com/forum/archant-great-british-life
    (and whilst there, read the stuff about the Digital Economy Bill mother of all rights grabs)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Good idea - it's about time us photographers managed to find a way to challenge these rights grabs! Nice one, and link posted to my blog at www.peakimages.co.uk/photography/another-day-another-rights-grab/

    ReplyDelete
  22. I just googled "Great British Life" and its number 3 now! Good work

    ReplyDelete
  23. While I can see where you're coming from, isn't this mainly aimed at asmateur photographers rather than professionals who would expect to get paid for their pictures?
    The way the competition is worded, it looks like it's aimed at amateurs for whom getting a front page picture would be a big thrill, rather than pros.
    I wouldn't have thought a pro would ever consider giving their work away like this.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I added a post to my blog about this
    http://castlepictures.com/2010/02/23/growing-threat-of-image-rights-grabs/

    ReplyDelete
  25. Redbull are worse (can it be worse?)
    Not only do they take your images, you can not sell them elsewhere, but they have urestricted use and can sell them themselves

    I did a blog about it a while back:
    http://www.callumw.com/blog/index.php/200908/183/

    CW

    ReplyDelete
  26. Added to my site at http://www.lightpainter.co.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=aboutpage.About

    Nathan, all these rights grabs are aimed at amateurs, simply because most/many don't know any better. However, this impacts on us because the grabbers do this quite deliberately rather than pay proper rates for stock photos. Why should they if they can get 1000s of free images sent in to them, many of which will actually be pretty good. Makes my blood boil...

    ReplyDelete
  27. Nathan, the way the competion is NOW worded is a direct result of this blog campaign. Archant have changed the terms and conditions. They have added:

    "The competition is only open to amateur photographers, by uploading any photographs you confirm that you are eligible to enter the competition."

    and this:

    "Please state clearly in the subject line of your e-mail if you do not wish for Archant to use your photographs in print or in any other promotional material. If this is not stated, the terms and conditions above apply."

    However, their standard terms and conditions, which apply to anyone who registers on their site, still apply. They say they are now looking at changing this.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  28. Thank You Chris. I just posted the link to my photography clubs FaceBook Page.

    Best Regards,
    Cate

    ReplyDelete
  29. Great British Life revised terms and conditions can be found here -
    Thank you for updating your blog Chris.
    http://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/revised-terms-and-conditions-great-british-life-18381/

    ReplyDelete
  30. Good ! Not quite Robin Hood, but already our White Knight. It's sad that in our world few things can be obtained and few rights are respected without what we call it in french a "coup de force" (a takeover by force).

    Anyway, good job Chris !

    ReplyDelete
  31. Thank you Chris for updating your blog post.
    New t and c's link can be found here.
    http://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/revised-terms-and-
    conditions-great-british-life-18381/

    Team Great British Life,

    ReplyDelete
  32. FYi

    Here is another photographer rights grab situation:
    http://www.flickr.com/groups/americanphoto/discuss/

    ReplyDelete