ipodcast competition is not for me March 16th, 2007
I was invited to enter the ipodcast competition (we’re highly sought after you know 
) along with a bunch of local podcasters and I initially supported the competition 110%. I was going to edit past and new episodes of chilipod and my own Legally Content podcast for submission this weekend until I read Mike’s post and Peter’s comment querying the rules of the competition on the site.
They literally have fine print and if you are considering entering the competition then you need to seriously pay attention to what all the jargon says. While there is a lot of complicated legalese (it is English, really), these clauses in particular are problematic:
(C) Any Entry Materials which Sponsor, in its sole opinion, deems to be inappropriate for publication will not be considered and the individual submitting those materials will be disqualified. By entering, each individual warrants and represents that all of the Entry Materials (i) is/will be the sole and original creation of the individual (or group in the case of a band) and has not been copied in whole or in part from any other work; (ii) does not/will not violate or infringe any intellectual property right, such as but not limited to, copyright, trademark/trade name, or contract rights, or other proprietary right of any person (including but not limited to rights of privacy or publicity and are not defamatory, slanderous or libelous, or portray in a false light), or entity; (iii) is/will be the sole and exclusive property of the individual (or group in the case of a band); (iv) is not licensed or otherwise encumbered in any manner whatsoever; and (v) complies with (and does not violate) any law, rule or regulation. Entry Materials cannot name, describe, or depict any person or character, living or dead or fictional, except only the band members, and cannot contain any material subject to copyright of any third party or contain the trademark, trade name or logo of any third party (other than that which is displayed on an instrument and applied to that instrument by its manufacturer and then only as it had been applied by the manufacturer). By entering, the individual grants permission for the use of the Entry Materials, and/or name of the band (and the name of each individual member of the band), in connection with the advertising, promotion, and publicity of the Competition and otherwise as stated in these Official Rules (as solely determined by Sponsor).
…
4. GENERAL CONDITIONS: By participating, each individual agrees to release, discharge and agree to hold harmless Sponsor, and its respective, parent, subsidiary and related companies, advertising and promotion agencies, and all of their respective employees, officers and directors, representatives and agents, and judges and against any and all claims, losses or damages of any kind (whether due to negligence or otherwise), including personal injury, death, and/or property damage, and/or breach or failure of any representation or warranty, and/or contract rights, and/or infringement of Intellectual Property rights such as but not limited to, copyright, trademark/trade name, and/or rights of publicity or privacy, defamation, slander, or libel, or portrayal in a false light, arising, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any prize or participation in this Competition, or participation in the Competition related activity or travel related activity, and (b) each winner, by acceptance of prize, except where legally prohibited, grant permission, in perpetuity, for Sponsor and those acting pursuant to Sponsor™s authority to use his/her name, photograph, voice and/or likeness, and videos, recordings, prize information, and Entry Materials (and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in these Official Rules license the use of the Entry Materials which may be altered, changed, modified, edited, used alone, together or with other works, and/or used in distorted, illusory or composite form, as solely determined by Sponsor) for advertising, trade and promotional purposes without further compensation, at any times or time, in all media now known or hereafter discovered world wide and on the Internet without notice or review or approval. All Entry Materials will be deemed a work made for hire under the copyright laws of South Africa, but if it cannot be so deemed, then each individual irrevocably sells, assigns and transfers to Sponsor all of his/her right, title and interest in and to his/her Entry Materials, including but not limited to all copyright and trademark rights, in South Africa and worldwide, therein, for valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged. Upon request of Sponsor, for the original music category, each winning band and the individual members of each band shall execute and deliver such additional instrument of assignment, as may be solely deemed by Sponsor, reasonably necessary to establish the ownership of record of the right, title and interest in and to the Entry Materials and of the copyrights transferred hereunder in favour of Sponsor, that the winning band and the individual members of each band may now or later have; and to record and perfect same. Should Sponsor fail to request the said assignment as stated, that shall not be deemed a waiver of Sponsor™s rights and Sponsor may at a later time request the transfer and/or assignment, and each such winning band and the individual members of each band agrees to comply with any such request. INFORMATION PROVIDED IS SUBJECT TO THE PRIVACY POLICY ON THE iPODCAST WEB SITE (www.getpodcasting.co.za). TO ACCESS AND READ THE POLICY, GO TO THE WEB SITE AND CLICK THE PRIVACY LINK. Any dispute concerning the Competition will be governed by the laws of South Africa and adjudicated therein.
The first part of these clauses seem ok but it gets worse as you near the end of it. Here is a summary of what these clauses say:
- the content you submit is your own stuff and it doesn’t violate someone else’s rights (including copyright and trademarks);
- your content is not licensed to anyone else;
- you have to play nice so no name calling or saying nasty things about people;
- you can’t talk about anyone except yourself; and (here is the clincher)
- if you accept a prize you give up your content to the Sponsor (Apple IMC Southern Africa, MINI SA, Coca-Cola South Africa (Pty) Ltd or 5FM) forever and they can do whatever they want with it, chew it up and spit it out.
The problem with this is that once your content goes into that competition and if you are fortunate enough to win one of the amazing prizes, you are going to lose big as the content you worked so hard to produce is yanked out of your virtual hands and sold into bondage. I don’t support this. These rules will, if I submit chilipod and Legally Content material, violate the content licenses that govern the use of that content. In the case of chilipod, the episodes are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. This license enables people to share our content in certain ways that are not possible under copyright (which is pretty much what will be imposed on your content in terms of the rules of the competition) and it is the license which we have chosen to govern use of our content. In fact, going further, the rules provide that you effectively give up any claim of any sort to that content. For this reason my own content will not be entered into the competition (despite the allure of a new MacBook Pro) and I doubt that chilipod will be a part of this either.
Don’t get me wrong, I support initiatives to promote podcasting and other new media elements in South Africa. I support those efforts 110%. What I don’t support is a competition that steamrolls over the rights of those same content creators the competition would seem to promote. That is not on. That being said, I urge you to make up your own mind. This competition could give you fantastic publicity if you do well and that is worth something. Take the time to read the rules (take an afternoon off) and see what you are getting yourself into.
Update: There have been developments here and here!
Tags: getpodcasting, ipodcast, competition, copyright, creative commons, content licensing, fine print, the catch
Posted in Events, Podcasting, Podcasts, Sharing, chilipod | Comments (2)
March 17th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Sorry, I must just point out that I highlighted some of the text in bold font.
March 18th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
THANK HEAVENS for you Paul keeping an eye on the boundaries for us!
We undoubtedly need more Creative Commons education for our community and for those corporates who seek to play on our playground.
much thanks chilibean