Or more like the Great British Rights Grab. Read the story about Great British Life.

You may have heard of rights grabbing competitions or magazine schemes where the small print associated with the submission pretty much means you are giving away all of the rights to your photo. OK, they say that the copyright remains with you but what value is your copyright when simply submitting your photo gives the organisers the right to use your image in any way they like (including making profit from it) without the need to pay you a single penny or even acknowledge you as the photographer.

Not only that but they get the right to use your images for as long as and as often as they want. This is blatant rights grabbing and more and more, there are examples of this type of despicable practice appearing on websites and magazines offering you ‘free publicity’ on your photos by simply uploading them to their website.

This particular example Great British Life from Fair Trade Photographer explains the problem in more detail. But the moral is this. Always read the small print and if you see terms such as;

You automatically grant ‘Company Name’ the royalty free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license…

Then steer clear.