Another day, another rights grabbing photo contest – “The Gerber Generation Photo Search”

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AngerIt seems that lately, these rights grab scams hit my email inbox weekly.  I am so tired of people getting scammed by these companies!

In this particular example, Gerber is asking people to submit photos in a variety of categories, all for the chance to win the monthly prize, a Flip Slide HD video camera and be “featured” on Gerber.com. After 6 months, when Gerber has scammed people out of enough of their treasured photos, there is a small chance to win the “Grand Prize”, consisting of a $25,000 scholarship, and the child gets to “star” in a Gerber ad.  Gee, how much do you think they would have to pay to have that many photos of children, and cast one to star in an ad?

Straight from the about page for the “contest”,

My, how he’s grown! Isn’t she a cutie?
Who can resist ooh-ing and ah-ing over a picture of your adorable child?  And if you’re like us, you love showing them off! Now you can share your pride and joy with friends, family and other parents-and possibly win big, too.

Are you kidding me!?  And the end of the last sentence, Gerber handily forgot to mention the part where they get to use your photos pretty much however they see fit.  Specifically:

By making a submission, participant warrants that participant is the copyright owner of the submission and hereby grants to Promoter a royalty free, irrevocable, perpetual and worldwide license to use and display the Submission, including in a “Gerber Generation” image frame, together with the first name and city of participant an the child, on Promoter’s website, www.gerber.com/photo, as well as on other Promoter websites (including Promoter’s Facebook pages(s) and mobile website(s)) and otherwise use the Submission in accordance with these Terms and Conditions, without compensation of any kind or further notice to or approval from participant or any third party.  Promoter Parties are not responsible for any unauthorized third party use of any Submission.  Promoter Parties do not guarantee that any Submission made will be posted.  Participant acknowledges that Promoter uses third parties to provide hosting services for parts of the Gerber.com site, and that Submissions may be hosted, in whole or in part, by such third parties

Let’s break that down a bit:

  • “In a royalty free” – you nor the photographer never get paid, EVER
  • “irrevocable” – you submit a photo to them, you can’t stop them
  • “perpetual” – you can NEVER stop them.
  • “Worldwide” – they can use the entry anywhere
  • “Promoter Parties are not responsible for any unauthorized third party use of any Submission” – they won’t even protect the copyright they are stealing

In the past, I might have overlooked these terms, but, it is clear from the updated verbiage that mentions facebook and mobile sites, that these terms and conditions have been updated. They are well aware of what they are doing.  Gerber is just another company preying on unsuspecting parents and children.

For all photo contests, read through all that fine print.  Decide for yourself if it is worth it.  And please help spread the word about this and other rights grabbing schemes disguised as photo contests.

I wonder what Ann Turner Cook, “the” Gerber baby, would think of this…

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