At the risk of sounding too full of myself, I’ve had my share of solicitations from photo contests for me to enter an image of mine. I certainly would not be rich if I’d gotten a nickel for every request, but there have been enough times that I have become familiar with clicking on the “Contest Rules” link before doing anything else.

Recently, I was solicited by someone affiliated in some way with the upcoming launch of the website MomsTeam.com. This is some sort of site targeted towards “youth sports parents”. They posted a comment on my flickr page for a photo I took of Lauren bowling. I’m quite proud of this photo, not only because of the outcome but also the element of surprise; I had not seen her fingers crossed when I was shooting the image, and I think that element makes this photo speak to the audience…. truly telling a story.

At first I was flattered, as I would expect most photogs would be. I jumped over to their site via the link they provided in their comment. I read through the description of the contest, and then wanted to do the same for their contest rules. I get to rule #9 and read this:

In the event your photograph is among the ones selected for posting on MomsTeam, it becomes the sole and exclusive property of MomsTeam.com, Inc., and as such may not be published elsewhere (including but not limited to other Internet websites and print publications) without the express written consent of MomsTeam.com, Inc.

So, to summarize for this specific contest:

• You send in a photo
• They send you some Clif Bars, but only if you’re the first 200 in that sport. (Though, rule #11 states that they can send you whatever they want)
• If they ‘select your photo’ for the website, they get all rights to reproduce it

What I see is a cheap way for them to get free image content to use on their web site. This is the deal-breaker for me. So, if I am lucky enough to have my photo selected for the web site, I can never put it on any other web site, or print publication without permission? Is this correct?

I do not understand why this rule is always in there for photo contests. And it’s not always small-time web sites that have this rule. There for a National Geographic contest that I wanted to submit an entry for, and they also had this stipulation. Any photo that I would think was worthy of submitting to a contest is one that I would never want to lose any rights to.

There has to be some reason for it. I can only assume that it is for the benefit of the contest proprietor and not for the entrants. I’m hoping that some legal guru will stumble upon this post and enlighten me on the reasoning for such rules.