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German Wirehaired Pointer
Copyright 2012. Anne M. Hier
All Rights Reserved |
If you want to showcase your artwork,
various web and social media sites now give artists plenty of
opportunity to do so. In many cases, the networking is great. You
can see and compare your work to that of your colleagues and
sometimes win prizes for your efforts. But, keep in mind, there are
many types of art competitions online. You need to be aware of both
the advantages and pitfalls.
One of the reasons for offering a
competition is to build traffic to a particular site. Many
legitimate art organizations or artist's websites have ongoing
competitions for various media and subject matter. They may offer a
nominal prize and charge no entry fee. Generally, the only
requirement is that you enter your work in a particular digital
format. However, the real goal is to have you either register or
“like” the particular site. If the site offers you value in
terms of networking opportunities with other artists, or the website
provides interesting information, then there certainly is no harm in
entering. However, even if you win whatever prize is offered, these
types of exhibitions are usually not something you would add to your
exhibition resume.
Other groups actually offer ongoing
online juried art competitions and may or may not charge an entry
fee. The advantage of these competitions is that they are juried,
at least for the prizes offered. The advantage to the organization
is they do not have any expenses to actually mount an art exhibition
for the public in a brick-and-mortar building. Correspondingly, you
do not have the expense of shipping your work for exhibition.
However, you may not necessarily be exposing your artwork to a
broader range of the general public that would be interested in
either buying your artwork or commissioning a piece from you. And,
there is a big caveat for these types of competitions – read
the rules before you enter.
I peruse the internet for upcoming art
competitions, particularly those that deal with animals as subject
matter. At this time, there is one competition that I recommend no
one enter, the Pets of the Homeless National Photo Contest, created
by an organization called, Pets of the Homeless. This organization
raises money to help feed and provide veterinary care for those
animals owned by homeless people. There is no entry fee, the
organization will post the images on its Facebook page, and it offers
a first prize of $500. So, what's the problem? It's all in the fine
print.
I have never entered a legitimate art
competition in which I was required to relinquish my copyright,
arguably, the most important part of a successful work of art. Not so
with this competition. In part, the rules state, “[b]y uploading
your Submission, in addition to rights granted below, you...hereby
waive any so-called moral (e.g., creative rights) in your
Submission.”
When the US signed onto the Berne
Convention, visual artists gained moral rights protection that was
then codified into our copyright laws under the Visual Artists Rights
Act (VARA). In our country, these moral rights protect two things,
integrity of the piece and attribution. VARA protects 2-dimensional
original art but not prints unless they are signed and in editions of
200 or less. However, it is unclear if VARA protects any forms of
digital art as protection is given to fixed works or art. You cannot
sell or transfer your moral rights but you can waive them at the time
of commission or sale. For example, if you are creating a
work-for-hire piece you are waiving your rights to be credited as the
creator of the artwork. Also, if a work is specifically commissioned
moral rights can also be waived. It is a bit of a stretch to think
that setting up the parameters for an art competition is a
“commission,” but it certainly does not legally qualify as a
work-for-hire. So what does this mean to you? Quite simply,
it means that this “competition” is a rights grab for the sole
benefit of the host organization. Rather than pay the going
rate for potential advertising and promotional products, Pets for the
Homeless has dressed it up as an “art competition.”
This fact is confirmed by the inclusion
of a statement that the artist will be granting a non-exclusive
license to the organization: “By uploading a Submission, entrant
grants to 'Pets of the Homeless' (and “Pets of the Homeless”
licensees and assigns) a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual,
non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, create
derivative works from, and display such Submissions in whole or in
part, and otherwise exploit the Submission in all media now known or
hereafter devised, throughout the known universe, in any way 'Pets of
the Homeless' sees fit including, but not limited to, entertainment,
instruction/education, promotional, advertising and/or marketing
purposes.”
Further, “[i]n connection with all
rights granted herein, 'Pets of the Homeless' (and 'Pets of the
Homeless' licensees and assigns) shall also have the irrevocable
right to incorporate Submissions, in whole or in part, into other
works, in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter
developed.”
I particularly like this sentence in
the rules, “[i]f necessary, entrant will sign any necessary
documentation that may be required for 'Pets of the Homeless' or its
designees to make use of the non-exclusive rights entrant is granting
to use the Submission.” This legalese is necessary because of US
Supreme Court case law that held electronic rights are separate from
traditional print rights and must be negotiated. They are not
granted automatically with boilerplate statements in the rules.
A non-exclusive rights contract means
that if you produced a successful item of art you could continue to
market it in derivative form yourself but you could be competing –
into perpetuity - with numerous other entities manipulating,
changing, and marketing your work with no input from you. This is a
great way to always remain a starving artist as you will receive no
remuneration for this use. And with the waiver of your moral rights,
your name wouldn't even be on the work you created. This seems an
intolerably high price to pay just to enter an online art
“competition.”
