Imagism

Jetstar an Australian based budget airline have recently opened a photography competition offering up to $65,000 worth of prizes.  Wow! Cool you say?  No, I don’t think so…

Have a drill through the terms and conditions and you quickly discover that if you “win” a category, while you don’t lose copyright, you do grant Jetstar a 3 year exclusive use for any purpose they wish.  So while you do actually retain copyright, you cant use it for 3 years but Jetstar get your image to plaster all over billboards, TV commercials, in flight magazines, email campaigns and what ever else they can think of to promote themselves, and all for a grand prize of just over $10,000 worth of retail valued vouchers.  In reality that type of usage granted to a client from a photographer is actually worth in excess of $25,000. Really. Try and buy this type of image from a stock agency.

What makes this image grab even worse, is if you “win” a finalist prize of a $100 Jetstar voucher.  Guess what, the same terms and conditions apply to you to!  Imagine seeing your image, an image that you photographed and own all the rights to, plastered all over the world for $100 worth of vouchers.

This competition is open to amateurs as well as professionals, but as an amateur you are still required to provide any required third party property & model release forms (and you all have those on hand when you take your magnificent snap shot) because if you don’t you will be liable to any of these third parties when they come to collect their dues, because simply by entering you indemnify Jetstar of any of these responsibilities.  I would suggest you don’t let you or your child enter a photograph made of another child or any identifiable person at a private resort destination with a name brand t-shirt on, or even in a national park for that matter (but that’s another issue all together)

Now about the prizes, should you win, you must use your vouchers completely within 18 months – even the $5000 grand prizes, only you the winner can use them, and even if you do use them they are only usable in $500 vouchers, any amount not redeemed is forfeited. So you’d waste more than half of them on a typical domestic intercity return trip.

Now Jetstar state that they will put your name next to your image every time they display it, but guess what that is your right regardless and you are entitled to this with every photograph you capture unless you decide that it is not necessary. You definitely need to be in this for the glory only, but be sure it is really worth it, because simply by entering you’ve agreed to the terms and conditions below.

http://www.jetstarphotocomp.com/terms.aspx

If you do have a lovely image that you would like to share with the world, I would suggest a Smugmug, Flickr or facebook account instead.  just be sure to understand their T&C’s to.