Talk to Frank…nah, sod it.
Written by David WhiteI’ve been trying to talk to ‘Frank’ for a while now. The government urge us to do so, but I’ve found him deaf as a post, and rather naive. All I want him to do is address the concerns many have over the ridiculous and greedy ‘Science so what’ photo comp…you know, the one where all entrants to the Government’s
science photo comp give Murdoch the rights to use ALL entries (not even just the winner…) across ALL media, FOREVER, for NO pay. And one person wins a mediocre camera. Genius. Evil genius.
Frank said he’d try to help. He lied. (EDIT…HE DIDN’T…THANKS FRANK :)) I don’t even think Frank exists.( EDIT…HE DOES)
UPDATE:
‘Frank’ has been back in touch (funny how is gender changes across here and the facebook group, but hey, whatever floats your boat)..here is his/her reply:
Hi everyone
I can assure you I do exist! Sorry for not getting back to you sooner – things are taking a little longer than I expected. Thanks to the information posted here we’ve been able to draft a new set of terms and conditions that will better reflect the aims of the competition and how the images will be used. Once these are signed off by the legal team they’ll replace the existing T and Cs. Thanks for you patience, and for raising this issue.
Best
Frank
Fingers crossed….seems like maybe we can ‘Talk to Frank’ after all…
Discussion (3 Comments)
I got this quick response just now..
here’s what ‘frank’ tells me just now. Seemingly good news..
Actually I suspect the credit (if its due when the wording appears) goes to you
cheers
Robert
“Hi Robert
Thanks for getting in touch. We’ve drafted a new set of T&Cs that should better reflect the aims of the competition and reinforce the rights of entrants, hopefully these should be signed off by the legal team and implemented today.
Best
Frank”
On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 11:35 AM, robert van Koesveld wrote:
This is an enquiry e-mail via http://sciencesowhat.direct.gov.uk/ from:
robert van Koesveld
please fix this blatant theft in your ‘competition’ One expects more from a government sponsored organisation
here whats very wrong – ‘worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to publish and use each entry (including all images and text submitted by the entrant as part of the entry process) in any and all media (including, without limitation, print and online) in perpetuity.”
Please address this or close the competition. You are exploiting people.
Hi Frank,
We look forward to seeing the new terms and conditions and would like to thank you for taking this issue seriously. I am not a photographer but to understand the strength of opinion on this, many photographers have lost their livelihoods in recent years because the value of photography had plummeted. This is painful experience for many people. The terms in the competition is salt to their keenly felt wounds.
Thanks again.
Also I would like to add for the wider duckrabit readers if more photographers like Robert were willing to write, tweet and comment, than issues like this would stop coming up
Hi David
As promised, here are the updated terms and conditions. Speaking personally as a freelance writer, I wholly appreciate the importance of protecting the livelihood of those who work in the creative industry. I think the updated T&Cs reflect the sincerity of everyone on this project to support those goals. Anyway, without further ado, here are the important changes, the full text is available on the SSW website.
“19. By entering this contest you agree that any (winning or shortlisted) entry you submit may be used by the Promoter, News Group Newspapers Ltd and their selected sub licensees solely for marketing and promotional purposes in connection with this contest or future contests, such uses include;
• judging the competition;
• displaying the entries on the Science: [So what? So everything] website and The Sun’s website;
• displaying the entries in the printed version(s) of The Sun newspaper;
• cropping and re-sizing the image as necessary to fit; and
• inclusion within any materials promoting the competition or any exhibition of images from this competition organized by the Promoter, News Group Newspapers Ltd and their authorised representatives
20. By entering, you grant to the Promoter, News Group Newspapers Ltd and their authorised representatives a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to publish and use your image only in the ways described in clause 19 (above). Such licence will commence on the date your entry is received by the Promoter and will expire five years after the date of the announcement of the winners.
21. If the Promoter or News Groups Newspapers Ltd or their authorized representatives wish to use your image in any way which is not described in clause 19 above, they will only do so after they have contacted you and obtained your express permission for such additional use (for the avoidance of doubt, you do not have to grant such permission).”