Sorry to hear about your trouble. This one sounds like its going to depend on the written terms of the competition you entered and or possibly the terms of the holiday you took.

As with anything surrounding verbal contracts its an absolute minefield proving or disproving who said what to whom and when. You asked and they said “just for the competition” but did the competition and your participation in it grant them explicit rights to reproduce your “entries” for their own promotional activities without further payment? We would need to see the terms of entry to know for sure.

Do you have the entry terms and conditions? If you could let me see a copy of those (email to webmaster at thephotographybiz.com) I could have a go at interpreting the “photo speak” (remember I’m **not a lawyer** just a photographer) and see what was implied by entering that competition.

Tips:

1) The key thing (for the future) to remember is to never hand over images without a licence. On a licence you can stipulate exactly what uses you are granting.

See here for a licence tutorial:

http://www.thephotographybiz.com/photography-business/what-exactly-is-a-photography-license/

2) Read all competition entry forms very carefully - especially the small print. A lot of them will have clauses that grant rights in perpetuity to use; sub-licence or generally exploit your images for their commercial gain with no payment for that commercial usage to you.

The company have definitely used your images, you have the proof. what we don’t know at this stage is whether your entry allowed them to do that or perhaps your holiday itself - anything in that paperwork pertaining to images shot while on the course?

PP

I’ve recently discovered your very informative website. This post makes a great deal of sense but what if your image has been already used without your permission with only a credit line?

I’m in the following position and I’m not sure what to do about it, maybe you could give me the benefit of your expertise?

In the summer I went on holiday on an organised underwater photo workshop on a diving liveaboard. At the end of the holiday they had an informal competition (to showcase the best of the weeks work). I asked (before submitting my images to the divemaster) if the images were just for the competition or if they would be used for anything else. He told me it was just for the competition.

Recently I’ve received a brochure from the holiday company in question with my images printed in the centre pages under ‘Photo of the day’ sections. Its also on their website under that section. They also sent me some printed bookmarks with their company logo and a funny-looking blend of my images on. I have a credit line against the images in all three instances but I was going to try and get accepted at a stock library so feel a little peeved that they used these images without permission.

I signed nothing in regards to the use of my images, which in retrospect was silly of me. I also could see no clauses on their website about entering ‘end-of-trip’ comps. However I didn’t plaster my copyright banner all over them (because it was for a comp). What do you think I should do?

Many thanks

Suzy