Interested in taking part in a community design project? The Country Fire Authority (CFA) in Victoria is running a DVD cover competition for its bushfire safety awareness DVD.
The DVD aims to raise awareness for the Victorian Bushfire Information Line (VBIL) and includes four short video clips with specific messages for CFA Brigade and volunteer members, general community members, travellers and tourists, and diverse populations. 5000 copies of the DVD are due to be distributed in October 2012.
The competition is run in conjunction with ArtsHub and invites entries from both emerging and established designers from around Australia. CFA’s vision for the design is a creative image that captures the spirit of community awareness through the VBIL service. The winning design will be chosen by a jury panel according to the following criteria:
- Originality of the design, and
- Visual appeal reflecting the message of the VBIL Awareness Campaign.
Entries should be submitted at 300dpi as a JPG along, with a completed application form and sent to vbildvddesign@cfa.vic.gov.au by Sunday 16 September 2012. Download the entry guidelines and application form here.
Thumbnail image: supplied by CFA
I do think that, as far as design competitions go, this one is pretty valid as it’s a worthwhile endeavour with no commercial prospects. With that in mind, however, the last line of the T&C concerns me a little bit;
“All design entries received remain the properties of CFA. Designers transfer the copyright and
the ownership of the Intellectual Property Rights of the design to CFA. CFA reserves the right
to publish design entries via printed media and/or electronic media.”
I’d be perfectly happy to submit something for this kind of brief, but if I generate something I’m quite happy with that I might want to use again elsewhere if it’s not picked, I won’t be able to do that because the CFA will own it. Furthermore, this point allows them to use my entry down the line whenever they like, for whatever they like, without needing my permission. They could potentially take my idea and generate an entire campaign around it without any further involvement from me at all.
I’m not saying that the CFA would do this, or that they’re being secretly evil or anything, but it begs the question as to why this point is necessary, and if companies/organisations keep doing it without being asked why, it encourages other, potentially much nastier groups to do the same.
Or, I could be looking at it all wrong. What’re Desktop’s thoughts on this?
Totally agree Dan. I have emailed VBIL team about this issue since they replied my questions quickly last time. Hopefully they will reconsider the T&C.
Hello Dan and Yeok
Thank you very much for your feedback. We apologise for causing the confusion as CFA certainly does not intend to plot anything malicious here. Our wish to retain the IP rights mainly is about in the event we need to edit any entries to ensure that our campaign is in line with the rest of the CFA public safety campaign or Department of Justice’s state-wide campaign.
CFA values and respects designers’ rights and creativity, and so to clarify the issue, we have amended our Terms and Conditions in relation to this particular clause as follow:
1. By entering into this competition, you retain ownership of intellectual property rights in your entry/entries. You are free to continue to use your work for any purpose.
2. By entering into this competition you (the Entrant) agree to grant to the CFA a permanent, irrevocable, free, worldwide, non-exclusive licence (including right sublicense) to use, reproduce, adapt and modify your entry/entries for the purpose of promoting public safety or the profile of CFA, with or without attribution of authorship, and including by supplementing the entry with any other material or using it in a context which is different to that envisaged by you.
Once again, we thank you for your feedback.