Shame on Canon, Vimeo, Vincent LaForet and all the judges for supporting a contest in which all owners of copyright of video submissions have to agree to transfer their copyright to Canon.
Shame on Canon, Vimeo, Vincent LaForet and all the judges for supporting a contest in which all owners of copyright of video submissions have to agree to transfer their copyright to Canon.
it sucks but where else would you ever use this kind of footage?
In general, running contests with transfer of copyright as part of the entry form language is a great “Deal” for the advertiser, but shameless on their part. Camera companies have done it for years. Kodak used to run these contests all the time for amateur photographers. That doesn’t make it OK. To your point: you never know what you may be able to use the footage for in the future. Canon should, in my opinion, agree to short term usage rights for the winner only. And only use the winners in reference to the contest.
Greg – let me look into this. A few MONTHS ago this was brought up and I was promised that this would not happen… then lawyers got involved and delayed the launch of this contest as it so happens – things go a bit rushed. I will reach out to Canon tomorrow and Vimeo and discuss this and ask why this specific request on my behalf was ignored. I have the feeling that the answer will be as follows: Canon wants to be able to promote the winning work – and they want a release to do so. There is a better way for them to say this – but I guess they overlooked this fact. Looking into it tomorrow.
Cheers – Vincent
That would be great!
In house legal for Canon is acting in Canon’s best interest, which of course would be to own the work and transfer copyright from artist to Canon. Wouldn’t it be a nicer deal for the artists submitting to agree to allow Canon to use the contest winners to promote Canon for a period of, say, 1 year after the contest ends? (No third party licenses of course.) Also, I don’t know if it is in the contract, but make sure that artists/submitters to the contest are allowed to use the video for “Self Promotion” on their websites or promos.
In the end, if Canon won’t budge, at least photo-video artists who enter the contest should be aware that they are transferring copyright to Canon.