Photo Contests

[wini]

Hello All:

I am fairly new to digital photography but last month I entered a photo contest at PicPrizes. (www.picprizes.com)

Well I was surprised that I actually won! They paid me $25 for a photo of a fire engine that I had taken.

Has anyone else won from this photo contest site or any others?

Enjoy being part of the forum.

[shootem]

Congratulations Wini. Have you read all the fine print, do you retain copyright?
Beware of the fine print.

This looks a bit suspicious:


PicPrizes does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, you grant PicPrizes the following worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s), as applicable:

With respect to photos or graphics you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or PicPrizes removes such Content from the Service.
"

So - what this is saying, they can use any photo they want royalty free.... not paying you for using it. To me, this looks like a scam to get stock royalty free images.
Beware.
CG

[wini]

Actually, to me that is not what it says at all... it just says that they have the right to show your pictures on their site.

The same right that this forum has.

[wini]

I went and emailed them to try and get clarification. Here was their response:

With respect to photos or graphics you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, the license to publicly display such Content on the Service. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or PicPrizes removes such Content from the Service.

Bottom line: PicPrizes will never sell your photos to other sites or other people. The pictures you upload are only for the PicPrizes site.

They also pointed me to the photo upload page that ahs the same note on it.

[contestgur]

Congratulations on your WIN wini! Contests are a great way to get exposure and an incentive to improve your skills!

Melanie

[wini]

Thanks.... I have really had a good time on that site... I am slowly getting better!

[LuckyRedHe]

Do you have a link to your photo on the contest site? I searched "fire engine" and got a guy spinning fire. I'm new at this too and excited to try some contest sites - so glad you pointed me to one!

[wini]

Yeah... the site is called PicPrizes.

And a list of all fo their contests is:
www.picprizes.com/index.php?page=allcnt

Good luck!

[LuckyRedHe]

After Googling them, I found a lot of complaints and reports to the BBB state that they are NOT in good standing. There are enough negatives for me to stay away.

Here's one link that has several complaints explained in detail:
www.todays-woman.net/poetry-scams-34.html

Just watching out for each other :O)

[wini]

You have the wrong place.... PicPrizes has nothing to do with Circle of Photography or whatever that link was that you sent.

I can tell you that PicPrizes has no complaints and has always paid me and anyone else I know on time.

[LuckyRedHe]

Wow. That was incredibly weird. I even tried finding the wrong site and I don't know how I did it? Man, I'm glad you corrected me --- I guess the site you recommend IS legit! Yay! I love legitimate businesses and not fraud LOL! Sorry about the mix-up... still haven't found your fire engine picture but I'll browse around and hope to see!
Thanks for not getting mad!
) LuckyRedHen

[wini]

No problem... we are all here to work together.