Remember this? The One North East competition for students that promised to take all the entrants’ copyright (not just the winners) including all moral rights to their work in perpetuity and all over the universe?
We wrote to One North East and the competition’s sponsors setting out our case and asking for our photographs back. That’s Stuart Busby, Craig Stephenson, Michael Flowdy, Louise Henesy, Emily Wardhaugh and Holly Miller, 6 of the 10 students from Newcastle College who were coerced encouraged by their tutor to enter the competition.
The really good news is that the rules have now been changed! Pro-Imaging, the group of professionals who campaign on behalf of photographers’ rights report that:
One NorthEast no longer seek to claim copyright, nor waiving of moral rights.
One NorthEast no longer claim unsuccessful students submissions other than a license permission to display submissions on the competition website. All images will be credited.
For the winning image the student will be invited to license their submission to One NorthEast for use in the Regional Image Campaign, such license appropriately time limited. and with a condition that the student will not use the submission in a way that could harm the reputation of the region.
We’re delighted, it’s a great result, and shows what can be done to educate even powerful organisations like the Regional Development Agency. We’re extremely grateful to Pro Imaging for their support. Campaigns like this ensure that creators of the photographs on the huge panels below on the walkways into Newcastle Airport, will be paid for their work, just like the people who pasted them onto the wall.
And although we have yet to deal with the issue of why the College was so keen to promote the competition amongst its students (when no other photography courses took part), of course it means that we are all…
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2 Comments
That’s great news Brenda! Thank you for all your hard work and the cool photo of us unhappy students.
Emily
It is great news. Emily, did you get an email from them explaining things? I didn’t, I assume because I asked them to give me my pictures back and they duly obliged.
I think it would be appropriate to write back to them.