Great British Life do the right thing!

Screenshot from the Great British Life website:

IMPORTANT: This blog page is an update of Fair Trade Photographer's campaign to publicise the formerly unreasonable terms and conditions for photographers on Archant's Great British Life website. To view the original blog post there is a screenshot here.

UPDATE: 25 February 2010
As a result of the support of numerous photographers for this campaign, along with support from The British Institute of Professional Photography, Copyright Action and Pro Imaging's Bill of Rights, Archant Publishing and the Great British Life team have revised their terms and conditions to take account of our concerns.

Whereas the previous terms gave Archant a royalty-free license to use any images uploaded to their website for anything they wished, without payment, the new terms state:

3. Use of Images

By submitting a photograph You grant Great British Life worldwide license to reproduce, publicly display, distribute, publicly perform and create derivative works from Your submitted materials on the Great British Life websites.

If submitted as a competition entry, in all media, in connection with the administration, judging and promotion of the competition and future competitions. We shall have the right to grant sublicenses to the press and publicity agents in connection with the promotion of the competition. Full credit will be given to You in connection with image usage.

You will retain copyright and if we wish to use your photograph for any other purpose Archant will ask your permission and obtain your consent before doing so. Any commercial opportunities that arise following the publication of the submitted photograph will be notified to You, and You will be free to negotiate terms independently.

Fair Trade Photographer considers these terms reasonable, and are grateful for the Great British Life team's co-operation in listening to our concerns about photographer's rights to their images, and the right to receive fair payment for the commercial use of their images.

Archant said to us:

Archant are always happy to work with any groups or individuals, if they have concerns in relation to our websites or any of the terms and conditions.

Archant's magazines provide many opportunities for British photographers to gain recognition and reasonable payment for their creative endeavours and we look forward to working with them in future in promoting the Great British photos of our many talented contributing photographers.

The new terms and conditions can be viewed here.

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I now have to bring a new Rights Grab competition to your attention, this time courtesy of the UK government Department for Innovation, Business and Skills and News International. Please take a moment to read about their Living Science Competition Image Rights Grab and find out how you can help.