I notice that the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition is now open to entries.
The T+Cs are worth studying in light of the NTs aggresive policy.
http://www.take-a-view.co.uk/termsandconditions.htm
By submitting images to Take a view, each entrant confirms and warrants that:
b) they own the copyright and any other intellectual property rights of each image;
e) they have received any necessary permissions from the owner(s) of buildings included in submitted images for the usage rights required by Take a view in #16 and will indemnify Take a view against any claims made by any third parties in respect of such infringement.
Note how the organisers indemnify themselves and pass the responsibility to the photographer to check that they have permission to submit their images.
Images are published in a national exhibition and the event is commercially endorsed by Light and Land, The Sunday Times, the National Theatre, the AA, Fujifilm, Calumet and Epson, along with many others.
Strangely, the NT is missing from the list of commercial beneficiaries / sponsors.
Also interesting is the fact that several National Parks are included as sponsors.
Do they over-rule the NT on this matter? After all, I would be suprised if an image taken in a national park could not be submitted to a competition sponsored by them.
It does seem strange that the National Trust would choose not to sponsor the biggest landscape photography competition in the UK, especially when National Parks are proactively involved. Once again, I suspect the reason why is because it conflicts with the interests of its commercial arm which will of course lose out from such a competition. Perhaps they would jump on board themselves but for the fact that the terms and conditions are so fair and balanced towards the photographers.
So, is the biggest landscape photography competition in the UK going to fall foul of NT policy?
Dare the NT flex their muscles on this one and put their policy into action?
Or is it really as worthless as I think? Will they let it go, thereby serving a difficult precedent for themselves in the future which might involve a court case for example?
I shall be examining the winning entries very carefully.
Also, notice the extremely fair T+Cs to this competition. This is how competitions should be run.