28 April

Clique Photography Competition Review

As we understand it, Clique is a members only association operated by Fairfax Media Limited and/or its related bodies corporate (together “Fairfax”). Clique runs a program which includes a number of photography competitions, for example Clique Monthly Challenges, Clique Nikon People’s Choice Award 2016 and Clique Photographer of the Year Award 2016.

Clique’s photography competitions are governed by “The Clique General Terms and Conditions”,  “together  with the Fairfax Privacy Policy and any additional terms, conditions, notices and disclaimers displayed elsewhere on the Clique Member Centre” (as stated in “The Clique General Terms and Conditions”).

In April 2016 Arts Law reviewed the copyright and moral rights clauses of “The Clique General Terms and Conditions” (as updated March 2016). As we only reviewed “The Clique General Terms and Conditions”, our review is subject to the Fairfax Privacy Policy and any additional terms, conditions, notices and disclaimers displayed elsewhere on the Clique Member Centre. Importantly, applicants will also need to consider the terms and conditions of the particular photography competition run by Clique.

Arts Law has rated “The Clique General Terms and Conditions”   2.5 out of 5 stars.

It is important to note, however, that this rating may be higher because of the terms and conditions of a particular Clique competition. The purpose of this review is to make sure entrants look carefully at to what extent the issues identified below are not addressed in the terms and conditions of a particular Clique competition, because “The Clique General Terms and Conditions” are the default position.

In sum, all entrants (not just finalists or winners) are required to grant Fairfax a non-exclusive, worldwide licence of copyright in material submitted (eg photographs), in perpetuity. Under the licence, Fairfax (as well as its partners or competition sponsors) can use, reproduce, edit and exploit the entries in any form in association with Clique or any Fairfax photograph program.

It is good for entrants that the licence they are required to grant is non-exclusive, rather than exclusive. A non-exclusive licence means an entrant can enter the same photo into other competitions and permit the competition organisers to use the photo.  If it were exclusive, unsuccessful entrants would not be able to do that.

However, aside from this, our view is that the licence is too broad.

Ideally the licence should be required from winners only, or at least winners and finalists, but not from all entrants.  

The duration of the licence should be limited, rather than being in perpetuity. It is unlikely a competition would need to reproduce general entries after a reasonable period of time has passed, for example 5 years.

As the terms and conditions are presently worded, the entries can be used and exploited only for purposes in association with Clique or any Fairfax photograph program, including by the competition’s sponsors. This is not restricted to non-commercial use for the purpose of “promotion/publicity” of Clique or any Fairfax photograph program.  Further, all entrants are required to waive their moral rights.

So, for example, Clique could run a photography course which uses your photo as a workshop subject or case study (either as a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ example), without any payment and without attribution, and allow course participants to edit, change and upload their own versions. In conjunction with the total waiver of moral rights, this is troubling.

Accordingly, we have rated “The Clique General Terms and Conditions” only 2.5 out of 5 stars.

For a higher rating, we would prefer that the licence be required only from finalists and/or winners, for non-commercial use for the purpose of promoting or publicising Clique or Fairfax photograph programs, for a limited period of time.  Importantly, rather than a moral rights waiver, there should be a requirement to attribute the creators of submitted material.

 

Further information

Please email us at [email protected] to tell us about any competitions or prizes you think we should check. 

See more about Arts Law's campaign to improve competition terms and conditions in the Prizes and Competitions section.